From Backlog to Breakthrough - The Murder of Nadia Iverson

Episode #38 - Nadia Iverson

[Shaun] 

It's easy to think that DNA is the panacea that will solve every cold case. The technology has come mind-blowingly far and has been used to solve many many cases including the murder of Stephanie Isaacson that we covered just a few weeks ago, and of course, DNA and Investigative Genetic Genealogy helped identify the Golden State Killer James DeAngelo in 2018.

[John] 

That’s not how it worked out initially for Nadia Iverson though. Investigators knew exactly who she was, and it was clear how she was murdered, but for a variety of reasons the case went cold quickly. Leaving her family with nothing but questions. It wasn't until 20 years later when Nevada cleaned up the gigantic rape kit analysis backlog that investigators and her family were able to get some answers, and 25 years later before they saw any degree of justice served on her killer.

(Music - Pause for 8 seconds)

[Shaun] 

Hi and welcome to Sins and Survivors, a Las Vegas true crime podcast, where we focus on cases that deal with domestic violence, as well as missing persons and unsolved cases. I’m your host, Shaun, and with me as always, is the one and only John.

[John] 

I am the only John in the room.

[Shaun] 

We have a case this week that was cold for nearly 20 years, where DNA plays a vital part in the eventual solve…. which is becoming more and more common as the technology around DNA is getting better. Companies like Othram Labs can get valid DNA profiles from extremely small samples. We’ll talk in a bit about why the case went cold for so long

In the 90s when DNA technology was new, there was no central database of DNA profiles like there is now, the technology was rudimentary, it was poorly understood, and took time to be adopted by law enforcement.

All of that led to widespread systemic problems we have a LOT to say about, but do you want to get us started by telling the listeners more about Nadia?

[John] 

Sure. When we first started researching this case, it seemed like it was another example of a murder here in Las Vegas where there was very little information about the murder victim, but we did end up finding some good information in a local hometown paper near where Nadia grew up.

Nadia was born on May 4th, 1977 in Pittsfield, Warren County, in the northwestern part of Pennsylvania, near Erie. Her mom’s name is Judy Buchanan and she had a younger sister named Marie, whose married name is Marie Coker.

We actually had to do a little bit of genealogy research ourselves to find out much more about her family. Her mother and father werent together, and we can see that she has her sister (who we have a lot of information from), a brother, and two half-brothers, one of whom passed away in 2006 at the age of 34 in 2006.

Nadia and Marie were very close, and from what we’ve read they had a pretty typical older sister younger sister relationship. Marie has the most amazing things to say about her big sister that really help understand the type of person Naria was growing up, so we’re going to share some of them. We’re thankful that she shared all this with her hometown paper because it offers good insight into the cool and unique person Nadia was.

She described her sister as “unique” and said “she was a firecracker” and that “she was very spunky and strong-willed”, “confident in what she was”, and that she “marched to her own beat”.

As you might expect, according to Marie, Nadia was friends with everybody she met, she was a very likable person, someone who just had to make sure others were safe. She was the type to take others under her wing and take care of them

Another quote about her that stuck out to us was that she “put pickle juice on her sandwiches, and stole the pimentoes from her sister’s olives” which paints a picture for anyone with a younger sibling, and she does sound super sassy.

[Shaun] 

Marie told a story about how Nadia gave her “her first tattoo” when she was 13. It’s just 3 letters .. “Taz” (like the Tasmanian Devil)

She said, “We were both a bit spunky back then and it described both of us”. It's no surprise she said that she’s really happy she has that small memento in her sister’s handwriting

She also talked about how the first time she used eyeliner, it was because of Nadia, who pinned her up against the wall and applied it, adding that her sister had a natural style and a gift for cosmetology and being a stylist.

She was a girl with “big hair” in the era of big hair [maybe insert a comment about the New Jersey Big Hair Era?], and she absolutely loved Warren County where she grew up. 

She loved fishing in the Allegheny River, swimming in the Brokenstraw Creek in the nearby town of Garland, and walking for hours balancing on the train tracks that ran behind the family’s house.

If she got to choose, she’d choose to eat at the family-owned restaurant “The Galley” in Youngsville, which is there to this day. We looked it up and it looks like a great family restaurant. 

According to Marie, as a preteen Nadia would come up with names for her future children, and she wanted to find love and start a family.  Nadia graduated from Youngstown High in 1995, and Marie said she had a serious boyfriend and they were planning to get married. When that didn’t work out, Nadia was crushed. They broke up in 1997, and as Marie put it, when you live in a small town, it’s hard to avoid seeing your ex everywhere.

It was only a few weeks later that Nadia met a new guy, Gregory Scott Vasilisin, that she called “Scott.” Nadia and Scott picked up and drove out of town, heading to Las Vegas. 

Marie said the only items left in her room were a pair of jeans and a cherished leather jacket.

We’re not sure why they decided to move her to Las Vegas, but things didn't go as planned.  Scott got arrested for armed robbery soon after they arrived which must have been a huge problem since they were both young and probably didn't have the easiest time finding steady employment. Scott was known to the local authorities because there were allegations that he was abusive, but we’ll have more to say about him later.

[John] 

We dont know exactly what happened after he was arrested, but her friend Tori said she saw Nadia on her birthday downtown celebrating on May 4th, then on May 8th, 1997, construction workers found Nadia murdered in a housing project called Marble Manor in Las Vegas’s Historic Westside at 1226 Reed Place near Washington Blvd and Martin Luther King Avenue. 

She had been shot in the back of the head just 4 days after her 20th birthday. She was found wearing a turquoise jogging suit with purple sleeves, and newspaper reports at the time commented that she was “thin and clean cut, with dark hair” in their typical weird 1990s fashion.

Police were able to identify her in just a few days because she herself had been arrested recently. 

An autopsy concluded that Nadia had been killed by a single gunshot to the back of her head, and according to the medical examiner, the entry wound indicated that the barrel of the gun was being pressed to the back of her head when it was fired. The bullet then exited the front of her face and was recovered from an adjacent bedroom in the house. 

There were some dirty tissues recovered from the scene. No shell casing, money, or identification recovered. 

Medical examiner noted that there was evidence that Nadia had been sexually assaulted as well. They collected what was called at the time, a sexual assault forensic evidence kit, but today we’d just call that a rape kit. 

That included clippings of fingernails, swabs from her clothing, and some tissues that had been found at the scene, and all of this was properly preserved in evidence. As we mentioned before though, at the time law enforcement didn't really know what to do with this evidence once they had it. There was no way to search for the perpetrator. They would just have to hope they stumbled across it, and even then there was very little cross-referencing at the time in such cases.

Nadia’s rape kit and over 8000 others became the backlog of kits needing to be processed here in Nevada. It would be two decades years before all of those kits were finally analyzed.

[Shaun] 

Let’s pause for a minute and hear from our friends at PNW Haunts and Homicides. Take it away Caitlin and Cassie. 

***** 

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Now back to the episode. 

[John] 

This problem was not unique to Nevada. Nationwide, in 2017, there was a backlog of 175,000 untested sexual assault forensic evidence kits for cases from 1985 all the way to 2014. This backlog existed partly because of a lack of funding for testing (things like staffing in forensic labs, and lack of proper equipment).

At the time though, detectives would not bother to even test evidence if a suspect was already known, if a victim did not want to participate in prosecution, or if the detectives felt they had stronger, more valuable evidence already. Many officers did not even understand that this evidence could be used to catch repeat sex offenders. That makes sense because the technology itself was so new.

For Las Vegas Metro specifically, they didn’t even start DNA testing sexual assault kit evidence until 1999. Before that, they were using a blood serum test that is much less accurate. Blood serum testing only led to convictions as low as 1 in 33 people. That was the same type of testing that resulted in Gary Dotson being sent to prison for 6 years for a rape he didn't commit, and it was DNA evidence that finally helped him get exonerated in that case.

[Shaun] 

In 2015, Nevada received 4.7 million dollars in total funding to analyze the kits and clear the backlog. There had been growing concern for over a decade that the rape kit backlog was growing, and it was preventing the prosecution of these criminals

The Attorney General at that time, Adam Laxalt, formed the Nevada Sexual Assault Backlog Working Group, and one of their first steps was to develop a bill of rights for crime victims that specified that rape kits would have to be sent to labs within 30 days and analyzed within 120 days. 

In 2017 Nevada added more forensic lab staff, 2 in Clark County and 6 in Washoe County. They also outsourced the analysis of some kits while they brought on new staff. Between the outsourcing and the added staff, they churned through the backlog steadily. It was very big news here in Nevada at the time, with victims and families of victims finally hopeful their attackers could finally be prosecuted. 

Finally, 5 years later, on December 31, 2020, Attorney General Ay-Ron Ford announced that the state of Nevada had cleared its backlog of 7,855 kits. 

CODIS is the FBI’s Combined DNA Index System, the national criminal DNA database. NDIS is the National DNA Index System, and it’s a part of CODIS. It contains the DNA profiles uploaded by participating forensic labs – local, state, and federal labs (such as the forensic lab here in Las Vegas run by Metro). 

The DNA profiles are uploaded into NDIS from evidence collected from many different sources, from missing persons, John and Jane Does, from crime scenes, as well as from arrested and convicted offenders. As forensic techs worked through the backlog here in NV, the profiles were uploaded into NDIS, and at first, they were seeing a 40% match rate or “hit rate” to profiles already in CODIS, which is incredibly high.

A “CODIS hit” or match can happen in one of two ways. 

The first is when a DNA profile developed from evidence is uploaded to CODIS and matches with a profile already in the system. 

The second is a case-to-case hit where an unidentified DNA profile matches an unidentified profile from another case. This type can be helpful in identifying serial sex offenders

When there is a potential match, the lab staff will perform a set of procedures to confirm. These confirmed matches provide invaluable information to the investigators, helping to identify potential suspects or serial criminals. 

Naturally, The more data that is uploaded, the more likely it will be to get these matches, and the leads needed to close a case or identify a suspect or a Jane or John Doe. 

[John] 

The testing of the backlogged kits had led to ​​1,083 DNA Matches and 64 Arrests. That’s 64 people being prosecuted that werent being prosecuted before all because Nevada cleared that backlog. It was such great news for the community.

Also, in 2019, Nevada legislators enacted SB368, which created the Sexual Assault Survivors’ Bill of Rights which grants sexual assault survivors the right to have their kits sent to a lab within 30 days, and tested within 120 days. Survivors also now have the right to be informed of any results of their medical forensic examination, to be informed of evidence preservation policies; and, upon request, defer analysis and preserve the kit for at least 50 years for uncharged or unsolved sexual assaults, and at least 20 years for unreported or anonymous sexual assault.

The initial funds to expand the analysis effort were sort of one-offs. But going forward, Metro procured funding of 1.6 million dollars a year to meet that 120 day time limit, and planned to hire 8 new people to process kits and pay for kit testing supplies

This all came about in 2016, when the Joyful Heart Foundation, in collaboration with Civitas Public Affairs Group, launched a nationwide campaign aimed at ending the rape kit backlog. The campaign strategy was established after a review of existing work in the field, including input from 75 experts, including advocates, survivors, prosecutors, investigators, crime lab personnel, and leaders at local, state, and national levels. After that, they did a comprehensive analysis of policy opportunities across all 50 states. The assessment established six key pillars essential for states to achieve comprehensive rape kit reform. The 6 pillars are

• Implement a statewide inventory of rape kits in backlog
• Mandate the submission and testing of all backlogged rape kits
• Mandate the submission and testing of all new rape kits
• Create a statewide kit tracking system
• Implement a mechanism for survivors to track the status of their kit
• Allocate appropriate funding to submit, track and test kits

The progress of each state is tracked on the website they established, endthebacklog.com. You can visit that site and check out how your state is doing, and ask your legislators to prioritize getting these kits tested.

Only one state, Maine has done absolutely nothing. If you live there, you should start calling your state legislature and governor today to encourage them to get that process started. Many states have made good progress, and hopefully, before long the backlog will be entirely gone

[Shaun] 

So what did this mean for Nadia, whose case went cold almost immediately as they exhausted leads?

The DNA evidence collected from Nadia and the murder scene was tested as part of Nevada’s effort to clear the backlog in 2016, a shocking 19 years after the crime had been committed.

When Nadia’s kit was tested, they got a CODIS hit, and it matched someone known to the Las Vegas Metro Police. Very well known, in fact.. In order to confirm the match, our old friend Dean O’Kelley and his partner Ken Hefner took a trip up to Reno where the suspect had been happily living his life for the past 20 years.

You might remember Dean O’Kelley as the lead investigator on the decade-long investigation of the Black Widower Tom Randolph. 

They followed him and were able to obtain a sample of his DNA. After additional testing, the police had their suspect. 

The DNA collected from the crime scene matched a former Las Vegas Metro Police Officer, Arthur Lee Sewall who as it turns out has quite a history.

[John] 

Arthur Lee Sewall was a corrections officer in 1990, and became a Las Vegas Metro police officer in 1992, at age 25. 

In 1995, the police responded to a domestic disturbance at his home while he was still on the force. His .357 revolver was impounded but later returned. Despite that, he was not removed from duty.

In February 1997, Las Vegas Metro set up a sting operation at the notorious Del Mar Hotel. There, Sewall was caught on video forcing a sex worker to perform a sex act. He was arrested and charged with “oppression under the color of law.” In other words, he was coercing and assaulting sex workers by threatening them with his authority as a police officer. He was convicted and given 5 years probation, and he resigned from the police force almost immediately. 

His DNA was collected during that arrest. 

He moved to San Diego, and while he was living there, he was arrested again for soliciting a sex worker, but this time the sex worker was an undercover cop. At the time of his arrest, the San Diego police confiscated a 357 revolver from Sewall.  

In 2004, as he was nearing the end of his probation, Las Vegas officers discovered that Sewall had violated his probation multiple times. In addition to the San Diego arrest and gun possession, he had failed to submit reports to probation officers regularly, and he was removed from a sex offender counseling program for noncompliance, according to prosecutor Doug Herndon.

As a result, his probation was revoked, and he was sentenced to between 18 months and 4 years, and he served about 2 years in jail. 

[Shaun] 

I want to take a second here and talk about Sewall’s gun. As we mentioned above, no shell casing was found at the scene of Nadia’s murder. That led investigators to believe that the bullet had come from a revolver.  With a revolver, the shell casings are not automatically expelled from the gun. They remain in the cylinder until they are manually removed. 

The bullet they recovered at the scene was ‘consistent’ and quote “eerily similar” to bullets that would be fired from the 357 revolver that Sewall had previously registered with Metro in 1995 and was confiscated from his home by the San Diego police in 1999, but according to the Las Vegas Review-Journal, that gun was destroyed. (golly I wonder why)

Cold case detectives Ken Hefner and Dean O'Kelley interviewed him on camera on January 10, 2018. 

[John] 

The video is shocking.  Sewall tried to claim that while he was having sex with Nadia some other person came in and shot her. The detectives told Sewall that it was his gun that was connected to the crime, and he kept denying his involvement for an hour, before claiming that he couldn’t explain why his gun was pointed at her head, but when it went off, he panicked and ran away. 

The next day, Sewall was arrested and charged with sexual assault and murder with a deadly weapon. The case went before the grand jury in March of 2018. The Grand Jury did indict him for murder, but they declined to indict him on the sexual assault charge. 

[Shaun] 

That was difficult for me to understand, and I’m sure it is for a lot of our listeners as well. Sewall, and some metro police officers, stated that Nadia was working as a sex worker. Sewall claimed that he and Nadia engaged in a consensual sex act, that he paid her for. Nadia’s family vehemently denies that she was working as a sex worker and there is no evidence that she was ever arrested for solicitation, and as we mentioned, no cash was found at the scene. 

I have some more to say about this, but I’m going to save it for the Swing Shift episode. 

This indictment came nearly 20 years after her murder, and as Marie put it, Sewall, QUOTE “had 20 years to live a secret life”

The State did contemplate seeking the death penalty for Arthur Sewall at first, but declined to do so. While efforts were made by the defense to lower his bail, he remained in custody for the duration of the pretrial. 

The prosecution was prepared to bring in the DNA evidence, the evidence of the bullet matching a gun Sewall was known to own, and his past crimes. In pretrial hearings, DA Pam Weckerly argued forcefully to be able to bring in the past evidence of Sewall sexually assaulting two sex worker victims in Las Vegas, as well as the San Diego undercover cop he attempted to threaten or coerce. As DA Weckerly put it, he engaged in sex with sex workers without getting paid, while in uniform and armed when he had the authority to arrest them and “deprive them of liberty”

The Court ruled that during trial the Las Vegas victims could be brought up, but since the San Diego cop wasn’t really a sex worker, and at the time Sewall technically wasn’t a cop, that instance would not be used. 

The defense’s main pretrial argument had to do with Sewall’s confession. At the time he was questioned, he was not read his Miranda rights, and the police continued to question him after he had asked to speak to an attorney. This turned out to be a huge mistake by the detectives.  The prosecutors tried to argue that Arthur Sewall was a former officer, and he knew what he was doing, and was fully aware of his Miranda rights. 

The Defense argued that his statement was involuntary and coerced. They stated that the defendant was an officer 20 years ago; and “laws change.” The judge agreed with the defendant and the confession was tossed out. The State lost their appeal on that ruling. 

The Defense also made some highly detailed requests for information on the DNA testing procedures and any corrective actions taken against lab techs, indicating they were hoping to make an argument against the validity of the DNA test results. 

We don’t know exactly what their arguments may have been because this case never made it to trial. In November 2022, 25 years after Nadia’s murder, Arthur Sewall accepted a plea deal. 

He pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter with a deadly weapon, and he was sentenced to 6 to 15 years, with credit for 1,811 days – nearly 5 years of time served.

[John] 

Art Sewall is currently serving out his sentence at High Desert Prison, and he’s eligible for parole in 2028. Nadia’s sister and her whole family have committed to be present at any and all parole hearings to make sure he serves out his full 15-year sentence. They feel that he got off very light with that sentence, and we’ll talk about that in the Swing Shift episode, so make sure you subscribe so you can listen to that. I’ll just say that we …. Have some thoughts on that,

The thing that stands out to us though is the recidivist nature of his criminal history. He has been accused of basically the same crime over and over in multiple states, and there is absolutely nothing that indicates to me that he won't get out of jail and proceed to do the exact same thing again.

We also wanted to circle back and talk about Gregory Scott Vasilicin. Remember him? He’s the boyfriend that Nadia moved to Las Vegas within 1997. At some point after he got out of jail he moved back to Pennsylvania and got married to a woman named Kenda, and they had two children.

This is horrible, but Gregory actually murdered Kenda in an incredibly grisly fashion, with an axe, and on November 19th, 2002, he called into Fox News in New York City to confess to the murder. He hung up, but they used caller ID to trace him, and Kenda’s body was discovered in Warren County Pennsylvania shortly after.

Greg fled to Las Vegas, and in less than 12 hours, he was arrested downtown. He pleaded guilty to first-degree murder and was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. He’s currently 61.

We’d like to take a moment to talk about Kenda because it seems like no news outlets really did, and she deserves at least that

Kenda was 34 at the time she was murdered. She loved horseback riding and according to one of her sisters, she was a bit of a procrastinator, doing things like waiting until the last minute to do her taxes. I can relate to that.

In the memorial website set up by her sister there are some nice quotes about her.

[Shaun] 

• Kenda was tragically taken from us much too early in life. She leaves behind two daughters, 2 sisters, her mother and father as well as a great number of friends who loved and cherished her. She will be missed by all who were fortunate enough to have come to know her.

• “Kenda was a pillar of strength. She gave support, help and encouragement to many people around her. She had the spirit of an angel. She could always light up a room when she walked into it. She was beautiful inside and out.”

• "I can remember Kenda and I dressing up in my mother's old dresses and walking up and down 3rd street like it was Halloween in the middle of summer. She will always hold a special place in my heart and when I think of my childhood memories, she is the first person that comes to my mind."

[John] 

Lastly, we’ll finish up with some more quotes from Marie, Nadia’s sister in the aftermath of Art Sewall’s long overdue prosecution and conviction.

• “After 25-and-a-half years of waiting for justice, I feel, in a sense, relieved, because he actually confessed,” 

• “The fact that he’s owning it is something I’ve prayed for for a very long time. That’s something that I’ve needed,  and my family has needed for closure.”

• “There will never be enough time served,” she said. “She deserved to live. She deserved a life. He chose to use his police badge as an opportunity to serve and protect himself instead of the community.”

• “In two years, he will go before the parole board requesting release,  and I will be there. I will fight for every minute for the next 15 full years for my sister.”

• “Ive felt like I have had to be a voice for her, to advocate for her, because he took her voice,”

• “She lives on through us,” she said. “I will take that forward with me and my children,  and they will know the goodness and the love in her heart that she had for so many people.”

Nadia was laid to rest in her beloved home of Warren County, Pennsylvania. Her sister set up a GoFundMe in January of 2023 to fund a proper headstone, which she got that reads “Deep in our hearts you'll always stay forever 20”

[Shaun] 

Thank you again for listening. We appreciate your support. If you’re enjoying the podcast we appreciate you sharing it with a friend and leaving us a review. 

You can find us on all the social media platforms at sinsandsurvivors and you can subscribe to listen ad free on our Patreon and on Apple Podcasts, where you will also have access to our bonus Swing Shift episodes. 

Until next week, remember what happens here, happens everywhere.