Justice for Tabatha

Las Vegas is, without a doubt, the entertainment capital of the world, with A -list performers lighting up the strip every night of the week.

In clubs all over town, large and small, every night is a party, and your hosts work hard to keep the drinks flowing and make sure you feel like a VIP.

For one Las Vegas model and entertainer, her boyfriend’s admiration became obsession and jealousy.

An argument after a night out turned deadly, and Tabatha’s loved ones have been searching for justice ever since.  Tabatha’s story is another tragic tale of domestic violence in Las Vegas.

In this episode, the pursuit of justice takes center stage.  Welcome back to Sins and Survivors, a Las Vegas true crime podcast with a focus on domestic violence cases.

I’m Shaun, and with me, as always, is the one and only, John.  

I am the only John in the room.  

Like we said at the top of the show, Tabatha’s loved ones are seeking answers,

justice and accountability.  Her family has called attention to the number of domestic violence homicides that happen in Las Vegas every year.  Sadly, their daughter and friend, Tabatha, was just one of at least 25 women murdered by an intimate partner so far this year in Las Vegas.

So, John, do you want to start us off with some information about the case we’re talking about today?  Sure.  Sure.  Our case this week is a story of Tabatha Tozzi, who was murdered by her boyfriend Oswaldo Nathanial Perez Sanchez on April 22,

2023, just seven months ago.  She was born June 21, 1996, so she was 26 at the time of her murder, and she was born in Japan,

according to her mom’s Instagram.  Her Facebook says that she was from Sao Paulo, Brazil, though.  Tabatha moved to Las Vegas from Los Angeles when she was about eight years old.

Her mom’s name is Regina Lacerda, and she is an only child.  Tabatha has said how Regina raised her as a single mom with the help of her grandma.  Tabatha was the main breadwinner for her family.

And she also supported her grandmother in Brazil who has dementia.  Her mother is quoted as saying, “She was my life.  She was not only my daughter, but she was also my best friend."  We have a lot of quotes about Tabatha,

so, I’m going to go through a few of them here to give you a sense of who she was.  One of her teachers commented on her memorial website, which of course we will link in the show notes.

"I had the privilege of being Tabby’s teacher in seventh and eighth grade.  She was a beautiful soul, and I deeply cherished the time we spent together in English and speech and debate.  She had a fiery temperament,

and I knew even then she would grow up to be a spirited young woman.  I was always proud of her ability to face challenges and adversity, and it is a true loss that she was taken from us so soon."  She was a graduate of Cimarron Memorial High School here in the Northwest Valley and later graduated from Esthetician School.

She was extremely popular, as you may have already guessed and very, very well liked.  She worked in the Las Vegas club scene and had more than 37 ,000 followers on Instagram and almost 3 ,800 friends on Facebook.

She was a dog mom who enjoyed writing poetry, which she often posted about on her second Instagram account.  We’ll get back to that later.  And her very last Instagram post was her declaring her support for Brazil in the World Cup game.

Her employer, Zai Las Vegas on Fremont Street, issued a statement saying, “Tabatha was an integral part of our team, and she will never be forgotten."  One of her friends described her by saying, “If you saw her,

you saw light."  And you’ll start to see some recurring themes in the things that people say about her.  Other things people have said about her include that she was very kind, loving, peaceful, inspirational to her friends,

supportive and empowering, beautiful inside and out.  She was described as a real-life guardian angel.  That’s part of the recurring theme.  In fact, when you go through some of the Reddit threads that one of her friends posted,

that’s very much a recurring theme that although she was obviously beautiful on the outside, that she was an amazing person on the inside too.  And sometimes people would miss that.  regarding her alleged murderer Oswaldo Nathanial Perez Sanchez and of course Perez Sanchez is innocent until proven guilty in a court of law but as we’ll talk about in a little bit Tabatha had a friend a friend of hers with her when this all.

went  down  who  witnessed  the  entire  thing  firsthand  can  I  just  jump  in  here  real  quick  yes  I  just  want  to  add  that  Tabatha  really  believed  in  looking  out  for  people  and  giving  back  I  saw  a  post  on  her  Instagram  where  she  was  collecting  donations  and  supportive  homeless  people  so  you  can  see  that  she  really  used  her  influencer  status  to  help  others  and  as  you  mentioned  she  had  37 ,000  fans  and  friends  on  Instagram  and

in  addition  to  all  of  those  friends  and  her  mom  Tabatha  is  being  mourned  by  her  Chihuahua  Lulu  following  Tabatha's  death  there  was  some  reporting  that  Lulu  was  sitting  at  the  door  like  she  was  waiting  for  Tabatha  to  come  home  so  back  to  unfortunately  Oswaldo   Nathanial  Perez  Sanchez  who  went  by  Nate  is  currently  27  years  old  he  was  26  at  the  time  of  the  murder  he  was  born  May  16th  1996  and  we  could  not  find

very  much  in  local  criminal  history  here  in  Las  Vegas  although  we  did  find  an  uncontested  divorce  in  the  family  court  with  no  children  prior  to  meeting  Tabatha  and  as  far  as  his  personality  goes  he  had  demonstrated  very  clearly  that  he  was  very  much  obsessed  with  Tabatha  the  main  evidence  for  that  is  that  he  got  a  tattoo  of  her  face  on  his  upper  right  arm  while  they  were  dating  so  that  doesn't  seem  like  the  most

stable of behavior but it does make him easier to identify and when we post photos of him, we will be sure to include those photos as well we don’t know a ton about her relationship because most of her social media posts were about modeling,

but we do know that Tabatha allegedly called her mom and a friend the morning of Saturday, April 22, the day of the murder to say she was trying to get away from her boyfriend.  Tabatha’s mother said in an interview with Channel 13 here in Las Vegas that Tabatha and Oswaldo had a turbulent relationship,

and that Tabatha was basically done with him.  Yeah, this is a quote from that interview.  Regina said the day before the murder, Tabatha said to her,

"Mom, I’m not happy.  I’m trying to break up with him, but I’m afraid."  And Regina asked Tabatha of what?  Tabatha replied that she was afraid Oswaldo was going to do something to himself.

And Regina then asked to himself or to you.  And Tabatha’s friends told Channel 3 News that they didn’t really know a lot about Tabatha’s boyfriend because Tabatha and Oswaldo had been dating for less than eight months.

One friend said that she respected Tabatha’s judgment and that she didn’t feel like they, you know, the friend and other friends needed to press Tabatha,

that she needed to leave Oswaldo or anything like that.  As John, as you mentioned, her friends believe that Oswaldo was obsessed with Tabatha and jealous,

and which was indicated by that tattoo he got of her face before they even really started dating.  And one friend had said that Oswaldo, he was more obsessed with Tabatha than he was in love with her,

and that he didn’t want to share her and the light that she gave off, he didn’t want to share that with the world.  And another friend has stated that she felt there were warning signs that the relationship was abusive or potentially abusive.

She said that Tabatha was not able to go out when Tabatha wanted to go out and that she had to be on speakerphone.  Whenever Tabatha was talking to a friend on the phone or whatever,

Oswaldo would have her put the phone on speaker so he could hear the conversation.  So, there’s a lot of controlling behavior, obsessive, um,

jealous behavior that we were kind of hearing about from these friends, even though someone said, oh, there weren’t a lot of red flags because it was only eight months in.  I think taking as a whole these little bits and pieces that the mom and other friends have seen that it looks like there was some indication that this relationship was abusive or had the potential to become abusive.

And to be clear, we’re not here to question her choices in who to date or do any sort of Monday morning quarterbacking on why she didn’t see the signs earlier.

None of that stuff.  We are not here for that.  We’re just pointing out some of the things that we know were true and, you know, just examining them in retrospect.  Some of the stuff is pretty,

pretty crazy.  So as far as the murder itself goes, it happened on Saturday, April 22nd, 2023, just seven months ago at 11 a.m.,

happened at the 8100 block of Laguerre Drive, which is on just off South Cimarron Road and north of Alta in North Las Vegas.  So Tozzi’s friend who was with her at the time of the murder,

who has said in a couple of places she wants to remain anonymous, um, said they were returning from a night out on Saturday morning when a fight between Tozzi and her boyfriend escalated.

Tozzi’s friend said that Tabatha was trying to leave in her own vehicle, but that Perez Sanchez would not let her, and he had taken her keys.  He then shot her in the head.

So, after that, Tozzi’s friend said Perez Sanchez approached her in her car with a gun demanding that she get out of the vehicle.  So, the friend let him take her car and then rushed to Tabatha to help her.

She said that at first, she couldn’t tell where Tabatha had been injured, but she called for help and that Tabatha was still alive gasping and fighting while they waited ten minutes for the police and first responders to arrive.

I just want to add that John and I will continue to research and try and find information about this case, but this, these part of the facts kind of get jumbled depending on which news source you’re following, or which friend or Tabatha’s mother is speaking about what happened.

Sometimes it sounds as if Tabatha may have been shot in the apartment that Oswaldo shot her in the apartment when Tabatha was trying to leave.

Other times it sounds like Tabatha was in her own car when she was, when she was shot.  It’s my understanding that Oswaldo then car jacked the friend and took the friend’s car,

but sometimes it sounds that, you know, the, with the pronouns get mixed up and when people are being kept anonymous, it sometimes sounds like maybe it was Tabatha’s car he stole.  But in any way, you,

you, you look at it, um, Oswaldo shot Tabatha.  Her friend was there when that happened and then Oswaldo stole either Tabatha’s car or Tabatha’s friend’s car.

So that car was later recovered with him nowhere to be found.  She was taken to UMC and put on life support, and she died on Monday night with about two dozen people at her bedside,

her friend said.  Tabatha was an organ donor and potentially saved dozens of lives through that according to channel 13 news.  And given everything we’ve learned about Tabatha,

I am not at all surprised to learn that she was also an organ donor.  Everyone that ever spoke about Tabatha commented on how giving she was and how she,

um, how giving she was and that she really cared about everyone around her.  So, it follows that she would be an organ donor thinking about other people,

not just herself.  Going back to the morning of the murder, Regina, Tabatha’s mom stated that she received a terrifying phone call from Tabatha asking her mom to come and pick her up and detectives investigating the murder determined that Tabatha had been in an argument with Oswaldo,

her boyfriend, before being shot.  And during that argument, the boyfriend took out a firearm, shot her and then fled the scene.  That is as much as John, and I have about an official police statement about what happened the day of the murder.

According to Tabatha’s GoFundMe, Regina, her mom raced over in a panic, and this is what her mom said, “When I arrived at the scene, it was the worst fear any mother could have.

My daughter had been shot by the man who claimed to love her and whom I trusted with my daughter, who was my entire world.  She is all I had left, and my heart is completely shattered."  And in a news interview later,

Regina said, “I went blind because my heart said that something was very wrong, and I couldn’t make it.  I couldn’t make it there on time to save my daughter."  And it’s just, it’s really hard to imagine that level of fear or pain that Regina was experiencing after getting that phone call and rushing to the scene and getting there too late to save her daughter.

So, moving on to the investigation, which is extremely frustrating, the Clark County Coroner announced on May 2nd, remember the murder took place on April 22nd,

so, the Clark County Coroner announced on May 2nd that her death was a homicide.  Las Vegas Metro police announced also on May 2nd that Perez Sanchez was a person of interest, is a person of interest.

So that was nearly two weeks later and that’s when they released his photo.  One of Tabatha’s friends said that when she heard the police had finally released his name as suspect she cried happy tears and is finally happy that his name and face are out there.

So, Perez Sanchez is still out there and wanted for murder.  His charges include open murder with the use of deadly weapon or tear gas, coercion constituting domestic violence with threat or use of physical force,

robbery with the use of a deadly weapon or tear gas, and grand larceny of a motor vehicle.  And unfortunately, we don’t know where he is.

A lot of theories on Reddit from her friends and seem to indicate that they think he might have gone back to California.  If you look at a lot of his photos, you’ll see he’s wearing a lot of Dodgers paraphernalia.

We’ve never really been able to find out where he’s from, where he grew up, but some also suspect that he has fled all the way to Mexico, but he is in the wind.  As far as the aftermath goes the family had several events to honor her.

Her friends and family packed into a funeral which was open to the public and it was standing room only at her funeral.  They also had a candlelight vigil and gathered in a local park to celebrate her life.

And it’s important to know that many of her friends and family are still working very hard to find Oswaldo and bring him to justice and to keep Tabatha’s story at the front of people’s minds.

Yeah, most recently on October 22nd, 2023, so just a couple weeks ago, her friends and family held a peaceful protest because Oswaldo hadn’t been apprehended yet.

They gathered in front of Las Vegas Metro Police’s headquarters to draw attention to the case and to basically demand the police for an update about where this investigation stands and their efforts to locate Oswaldo and arrest him.

With his photo being released 10 days after her murder, when the police had a friend as an eyewitness and Oswaldo took off in that car,

like I said, it was either Tabatha’s car or her friend’s car.  It’s completely understandable why her friends and family are asking these questions kind of like what took so long,

what was the delay and what have you done for me lately?  I can’t even imagine what those 10 days must have been like for her family and really all the time since then,

but especially the friend who’s an eyewitness to what happened who had a gun pointed in her face and her car stolen and her friend killed in front of her.  So as her mom rightly alluded to,

someone can get anywhere in the time that it took them to announce who the person of interest was.  Yeah, and her friends and family have expressed intense frustration over that,

not only because it took the cops 10 days before Oswaldo was even named as a suspect, but also that it took 10 minutes for them to get there while Tabatha was bleeding and dying.

The family also feels betrayed by Oswaldo.  So, Regina and Tabatha’s friends have said how they trusted him and trusted him with Tabatha.

And at the protest, Regina said that she knows that Oswaldo’s arrest and conviction won’t bring Tabatha back to her, but quote, I need to do this.

I’m going to fight until my last breath.  I’m going to be here fighting for justice.  Tabatha’s friends and family are demanding Oswaldo turn himself in and are pleading with anyone who might be helping him or hiding him to come forward and do the right thing.

Many of them have expressed how his arrest would take a weight off their shoulders, but particularly Regina’s shoulders.  And they think about all of Tabatha’s fans and friends and the Las Vegas community at large who want to see justice in this case.

Tabatha’s family and friends have also spoken out about their desire to raise awareness of domestic violence killings in light of Tabatha’s death and domestic violence in general,

encouraging women to find a trusted person or resource to go to for help.  As John mentioned, Tabatha was a poet and had a whole separate Instagram account that was dedicated to her poetry.

I want to share one of her poems with all of you.  This one is called traditional.  I don’t believe you have to be strictly traditional.  I believe in the beauty of trying new dishes and lifting your soul.

You don’t have to be societies normal.  Don’t fit into the norm that’s been bestowed upon.  Don’t fit into that short dress if it makes you feel long.  Don’t make yourself small so that others feel more comfortable picking out your flaws.

Make noise even when they try to silence you.  Speak up even when it’s just you too.  Teach them to respect you.  And as John said,

Tabatha had an Instagram that she was very active on.  She posted all of her pictures from modeling and different events she worked on.  Traveling she did during her life and one post that she made really stood out to me.

And I wanted to share it with everyone as well.  She posted this on International Women’s Day.  So, she writes, I just wanted to take the time to write out and say happy International Women’s Day.

It’s so important for women to stand up for other women.  Female energy is beyond powerful that it makes certain people uncomfortable.  uncomfortable.  Shout out to all the intellectual, smart, driven women who speak their minds and encourage other women to speak up and not stay quiet.

I kid you not.  I probably get the phrase, ‘You’re different than most girls.  I’ve never had an intellectual conversation with other girls the way I have with you.'  As much as I take that as a compliment,

I know there are so many girls like me, or beyond me, women out of this world who are fighting to make a difference, and I don’t want someone to put other girls down in order to make me feel smart."  To be honest,

many times, men tend to focus more on our outer beauty than our beautiful minds.  Beauty tends to distract a shallow heart.  Shout out to men who could recognize female energy and want to take the time to undress our minds rather than just our bodies.

There is more to women than their bodies.  You don’t have to be modest in order to be respected, nor does wanting to be more modest make you less uplifting.  Women need to be heard, not just looked at,

is a quote I made, and I stand for it.  I know most of my Instagram is filled with pictures of myself wanting to be a model.  I know most of my Instagram is filled with pictures of myself and wanting to be a model is based on image,

but I’m more than that.  I want to get to where I want to be, having a voice and making a mark in the world.  So please, never stop speaking up, even in a room filled with men.  Never be afraid to speak your truth.

We need more women feeling comfortable in their own skin and voice.  We need more women like you.  So even though Tabatha is gone with her words, her poems,

she has continued to inspire and encourage people and I think that’s a really beautiful thing.  We’ve posted and will continue to post photos of Oswaldo along with his wanted poster from the FBI.

We also mentioned that the FBI is offering a $10 ,000 reward for information leading to his arrest.  So please share his photo and mention his name because all it takes is for one person to recognize him to bring him in for this murder.

Anyone with information should call Las Vegas Metro Police Homicide at 702 -828 -3521 or contact Crime Stoppers of Nevada at 702 -385 -5555.

And we should also mention that he is considered to be armed and dangerous and you should under no circumstances approach him or confront him yourself.  Leave that to law enforcement,

let them do it.  We’ll share a link to the Justice for Tabatha Tozzi case in the show notes and we and of course our friends and family would appreciate if you would like the Facebook page,

share the information about Tabatha’s case.  In the meantime, please check out our show notes on sinsandsurvivors .com and share the information about Tabatha’s case and share the most wanted poster for Oswaldo.

He is out there somewhere, and we will continue to share updates on this case and hopefully we’ll be able to tell you soon that he’s been apprehended.  Thanks again for listening and sharing because what happens here happens everywhere.