The Murder of Maureen McConaha

Episode #37 Maureen McConaha

[John]

In the early morning of Saturday, October 4th, 1997, a resident of east Las Vegas was woken up at 6:30 am by his dog barking incessantly. 

He walked into his backyard,  where just beyond his fence he could see the narrow strip of desert between the highway and his yard. Under some bushes, he saw the body of a young woman. 

[Shaun] 

The police were stumped that no one had reported a missing teenager, especially because she was wearing designer jeans and had a fresh manicure. She remained a Jane Doe for 3 days, until her parents had to do the unimaginable - identify the body of their daughter, Maureen.

(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] 

This week’s case is from the late 90s, but there have been recent events involving one of the defendants, that we’ll talk about later. Also, we often cover cases where the couple involved is married and has children, but it’s important to remember that domestic violence and abuse can occur in any intimate relationship whether it’s a marriage or just two people dating with one of them being in high school. 

That was the case here. Maureen McConaha was born in Pomona, California on June 4th, 1980 to her parents Deborah Kloek and Joseph McConaha. She had 3 sisters named Tennille, Jillian, and Ashley, and a brother named Joseph McConaha the 3rd. Her mom married Alen Kloek, who was her stepfather.

The Family moved to Las Vegas in 1986 when Maureen was 6 years old. In 1997 she was 17, and was attending Sunset High School in Las Vegas.

She was outgoing and caring, and her parents said that she was stubborn and rebellious, and “ran with a tough crowd”-- not at all uncommon for a teen. She had a job at a Pizza hut located on the east side of the valley near the 95, and her stepdad said that she wrote in her diary that she was thinking about becoming a lawyer so she could “put criminals in jail”

[John] 

Maureen’s boyfriend was 18-year-old Christian Walker and they had been dating for about two years. This is yet another case where there seems to be relatively little information out there about Maureen as a person.. We’ve had a hard time learning much about her. 

A common thing with relationships and domestic violence is that as you might expect, the abuse tends to start out slowly, just like a frog in a pot. As Shaun often says, no one is going to start screaming in someone’s face on a first date.

Maureen‘s family confirmed this was the case with Maureen and Christian. In their first fight according to her family, something set Christian off and he flew into a rage in her room, with him tearing up her photos and destroying her treasured items. 

In another case, her stepfather Alan collected some employment applications for her. She filled them out and then met up with Christian who was going to help her drop them off. In that case, Maureen came home crying and said that Christian told her that he “didn't want her working anywhere because she would be talking to other guys” so he ripped up all of the applications.

It was no secret among Maureen’s friends and family that she was being abused by Christian. The Las Vegas Sun noted she had told friends at sleepovers that he had threatened to kill her, and many classmates had noticed welts and bruises on her. 

Her friend Ranae told police that Christian beat her regularly and that  “Maureen said she wanted to leave him and he didn’t want her to leave.” A former girlfriend of Christian’s, Tawsha, said that Maureen was afraid for her life. 

An anonymous friend told the Review journal that 'She and her boyfriend fought all the time. It is a totally screwed up situation and at this point no one can believe it. Everyone just wants to stay out of it.'

Her mother Debra was quoted as saying, “'You could tell she was scared…every time she would leave the house or call us on the phone, she would go out of her way to say, 'I just want you guys to know how much I love you.''

Also, Maureen told her brother 'If anything ever happens to me, I want you to go and tell Mom and Dad that I said Chris did it.''

On August 27th there was a very serious DV incident where Maureen called her mom from school crying, scared, and extremely upset. She told her mother that she’d had a fight with Christian and he’d assaulted her, and she had a big knot on her head.

As a result of this incident, Maureen was granted a temporary protective order, and Christian was indicted for misdemeanor battery for headbutting her three times, and her stepfather tried to “ban” Christian from seeing her. I can't even imagine how frustrating it would be to see your daughter going through that and not really being able to help.

[Shaun] 

It took more than a week for the temporary restraining order against Christian to be granted after Maureen filed for it which was, as her mother said, a “horrible delay for someone in her situation”

It also came out in her petition for a TPO that in July, Christian hit her, and then was “destroying her room, breaking glasses on his head and then eating the glass” which is obviously pretty disturbing. Given that fact, it’s pretty unbelievable that there was any delay at all in getting her that protection, scant as it was.

Unfortunately as it so very often happens in DV relationships, Maureen and Christian started seeing each other again. Her family and friends said that she went out with Christian on Friday night, October 3rd, 1997

Christian, his cousin Johnny, and Maureen all attended a party at the home of Tobin Roche and Dana Eichar, arriving around 9:30 pm. There was testimony that Christian had gotten enraged with Maureen when another man at the party was flirting with her. That appears to have been a common source of anger and jealousy for him. Maureen’s parents thought that she might have gone off with him out of fear, or in the hope they could become friends.

According to Dana’s later testimony, Christian, Johnny, and Maureen left the party around 10:50pm and around 12:30 am, Johnny and Christian returned to the party with with people that Dana and Tobin didn't know. Because of that, The two didn't let them into the party, and they noticed that Maureen was no longer with them. Dana asked where Maureen was, and Christian replied that they had taken her home.

[John]

The next morning, in the area near 4400 E San Raphael St, near Mountain Vista and Tropicana, neighbors were jarred awake by a dog barking incessantly. One of the area neighbors took a walk behind the rear fance of his home and made a horrible discovery. 

He found the body of a young woman between the ages of 15 and 18 who had been shot in the head. She was wearing jeans with frayed bottoms with bands around the ankles, and a multcolored knit top with horizontal stripes. She had long blond hair and well manicured nails.

Police were initially extremely puzzled that no one came forward to identify her. They immediately reached out to other agencies to ask if any teenage girls had been reported missing, but they hadnt. 

Maureen remained a Jane Doe for three days. 

Her parents were away for the weekend to see a Phoenix Cardnials game in Tempe, AZ, so there was no one to report her missing. When they got back on Monday, October 6th, they immediately started looking for her,  and just after midnight, they went to the morgue and identified her.

Police commented on the obvious rage and violence associated with how she had been murdered “execution style” and said whoever committed the crime obviously had a lot of anger toward her. 

She had been shot 4 times in the head at point-blank range and once in the hand. The only piece of physical evidence they found was a cigarette butt under her body

Police spoke to a woman named Sarah Hendricks who lived in the area. She had been babysitting for a relative named Rosco Workman that evening and had left around 11 pm. She told police that she observed three people to the west, and although she couldn't see their faces, she thought one appeared to be a female wearing a horizontal striped shirt. The others seemed to be male to her based on how they walked.

Rosco left the house shortly after Sarah (who was babysitting his child) in order to take his son out to visit a friend. Before entering the car, he told the police he heard three gunshots.. A single shot, then two in quick succession.

Initially, police didn't have a lot more than that to go on when investigating Maureen’s murder. They spoke to her friends and asked people to contact them with information about Maureen and “her lifestyle” whatever that means. There was a reward of $2000 offered, but they had few leads. 

[Shaun]

The investigation into Maureen’s murder led the Las Vegas police to uncover that Christian and his cousin Johnny were responsible for a shooting that happened just a few weeks before Maureen’s murder. 

On September 22, 1997, a 17-year-old boy named David Dimas was hanging out at Ullom Elementary School in Las Vegas which is on the east side of town near Tropicana and Boulder Highway. 

The school was across the street from his house, and it was pretty common that he would hang out there with friends and smoke weed. On the day of the incident, David was with a few friends named Lionel and Mysty, as well as with Maureen McConaha. 

Christian was there too, and he was showing off his gold necklace to David and the rest of the group who were smoking pot together. After they were done, , David and Lionel went home, and Christian left with Mysty and Maureen and completely forgot about his necklace, but after he got home, he realized the necklace was missing.

Later that afternoon, Christian went over to David’s house to ask him about the necklace. David said he didn’t have it. Christian said, "I ain't going out like no punk" and left and came back with his mom, Annette Walker. 

[John] 

A classic non-punk power move.  

[Shaun]

Again, he demanded that David give him back his necklace, and again, David denied he’d taken it. Annette threatened to take David to small claims court, and then she and Christian went home.

Christian refused to give up on getting the necklace back. He was sure that David had taken it. 

Around 11 pm that night, he went back to David’s house again, this time with Johnny. David was outside smoking with his friend Brandon when the cousins walked up to the house. 

Johnny suggested that the 4 of them go across the street to the school and smoke weed, which they did. After they were done hanging out, Johnny offered David his hand so they could shake. But when David reached out to shake his hand, Johnny grabbed his arm and pulled out a small caliber gun. 

David ducked, but Johnny shot him in the neck. The bullet went through David’s neck but somehow did not cause a life-threatening injury. David and Brandon then fled on foot, and they heard two additional shots as they ran away. 

[John] 

David recovered and was fully able to identify the shooter. 

On October 9, 1997, Christian and Johnny were arrested and charged with attempted murder. Johnny took responsibility for the shooting, claiming that he only meant to scare David into giving back the necklace or scare him into revealing who had stolen it. He said the gun had accidentally gone off because David had flinched or jerked his arm. 

Christian and Johnny were initially set to be tried together, but their cases were severed meaning they would be tried separately. Christian was convicted in September of 1998 of attempted murder with a deadly weapon for his role in David’s assault. 

Johnny's first trial ended in a mistrial, and his second trial in 2000 resulted in a conviction for battery with a deadly weapon, not attempted murder. This is an interesting result given that Johnny always asserted he was the one who had shot David. 

Lets pause for a moment and hear from our friends over at PNW Haunts and Homicides, Caitlyn and Cassie. Please show them subscriber love!

Back to the episode

[Shaun]

We included the details of the David Dimas shooting because according to detectives, it was their investigation into Christian and Johnny as suspects in Maureen’s murder that led to the discovery that they were the pair who had shot David. 

It seems implied by officers here – and I’m reading between the lines a bit –  that David and other friends of Maureen, Christian, and Johnny had been afraid to come forward with information about Christian and Johnny’s violent behavior. Based on our research, David’s shooting did not seem to be reported in the press until after the two were arrested. I did not find any articles about an investigation into the shooting of a teen in east Las Vegas around those days in September.

It’s my opinion and suspicion that perhaps David did not even report the shooting to the police and only revealed what had happened when the police questioned him about the cousins and Maureen’s murder. Since David was alive and fine, and Brandon was also present during the shooting, it doesn’t make sense to me that the police would have had to have done too much “investigating” to uncover who had shot David. 

I will also note here that Christian’s attorney, John (FAD IN)  Fadgen, when he was asked about the cousins being arrested for the attempted murder of David Dimas less than a week after Maureen’s body was found and more than two weeks after David had been shot, he stated that he believed the police had arrested his client to leverage him to talk about Maureen. 

So let’s get back to talking about Maureen. 

[John] 

At the point the cousins were arrested for the assault on David, police had said that Christian and Johnny were not cooperating in the investigation into Maureen’s murder.. They refused to provide alibis or give a statement. According to his attorney, Christian repeatedly claimed he was innocent of both shootings. FAD IN repeatedly said the evidence would show that Christian had no hand in Maureen’s death and he was innocent of all charges. 

Sgt Bill Keeton would not name Christian as the main suspect in Maureen’s murder, and said - “We are still following up on a number of leads but we need people who know details of Maureen’s personal life to come forward. We have reason to believe that some people right now are afraid to do so.” 

According to police, once the cousins had been incarcerated for the Dimas shooting, additional witnesses came forward about Maureen’s murder. Before that, these witnesses were hesitant about coming forward and speaking to the police. That relates back to what you were saying before.

[Shaun]

In what we read, that topic of the police asking people to come forward with information about Maureen’s life and relationships comes up a lot. 

But, the police had some physical evidence as well. A cigarette was found under Maureen's body, that tested positive for Christian’s saliva. They also had collected shell casings. 

Once the two cousins were incarcerated at Clark County Detention Center, being held for the assault on David, the investigators put a cellmate in with Johnny that they hoped would be able to get him to talk.

They matched him up with Mark Smith, and according to what Mark told the investigators, he and Johnny were reading the bible together one evening, and the topic of forgiveness came up. Johnny decided he wanted to confess what happened with Maureen.

Johnny said that he and Christian left the party with her in the car, but shortly after she asked to get out. They pulled over and let her out of the car, but a short time later, Christian decided he wanted to talk to her, so they circled back. 

Christian and Maureen started fighting because Christian said she was seeing another guy. He pulled out a .25 caliber pistol and shot her. Maureen fell to the ground. 

[John] 

Johnny told the informant that she was still alive and that he knew she could identify them. Johnny grabbed the gun and then shot her several more times. He "finished it, shot her." 

Once they knew she was dead, they left the scene and went back to the party. They told their friends that they had taken Maureen home. 

Christian’s attorney argued that the informant was trying to get a lighter sentence in his own case; according to FAD IN, the informant asked the police if he had done a good job and asked to be put in someone else’s cell. Johnny’s attorney Dayvid Figler said that the “credibility of jailhouse snitches is always suspect.”

Christian and Johnny were charged with the murder of Maureen McConaha and rebooked on November 20, 1997.

[Shaun]

The cousins did not have much evidence to offer in their defense. Christian and Johnny offered several conflicting and convoluted alibis of different groups they were hanging out with or different parties they had been to; a friend claimed to have seen them at Gameworks around 11:45 PM that night; but none of these were enough to raise reasonable doubt in their trial. 

Between Johnny’s confession to his cellmate, 

the witnesses who saw the two of them with Maureen right before her death,

the testimony about the timing of the gunshots, 

Christian’s DNA on the cigarette was found under her body, and 

the fact that Maureen had been pursuing an order of protection against Christian, 

without another suspect to point to or a solid alibi, the case was pretty straightforward against Christian and Johnny.

During testimony, Josh Martinez, a friend of Christian’s testified that Christain had told him he wanted to kill Maureen to prevent her from telling police he was the graffiti "tagger" they were seeking. And when their friend Dana testified, she surprised the attorneys when she told the court that during the preliminary hearing she attended, Johnny had looked at her, pointed his finger at his head – like a gun – and called her a snitch. 

Like I said earlier, their friends believed they were dangerous people. 

[John] 

It was no surprise when the two were found guilty. 

In February 2000, Christian was convicted of second-degree murder with the use of a deadly weapon, and Johnny was found guilty of first-degree murder with the use of a deadly weapon on March 10, 2000. The jurors only deliberated for 2 hours before handing down the guilty verdict in Johnny’s case.

Christian, who was 21 at the time he was sentenced, was given a life sentence with the possibility of parole after 20 years. Johnny, who was 20 years old, was sentenced to two consecutive life terms with the possibility of parole after 20 years.  

In January of 1998, before the murder trial began, the State decided to pursue the domestic battery charge against Christian. As we mentioned earlier, Maureen filed for a temporary protection order and made a criminal complaint against Christian in August of 1997. 

The police had gathered witness statements during their investigation of the domestic battery charge and called Maureen’s mother Debbie to testify about the headbutting incident. Christian’s attorney, John FAD IN objected, stating that Christian should not be convicted because he could not cross-examine his accuser. 

[Shaun]

DA Frank Coumou had the perfect counterargument to that and said  QUOTE the "right of confrontation was waived when the defendant procured the absence of the victim."

The court allowed Debbie to testify and convicted Christian on the misdemeanor charge. He was sentenced 120 days in jail, although he was already in jail awaiting trial in the murder case and also for the attempted murder of David Dimas. 

In this week’s bonus Swing Shift episode, we are going to talk more about protective orders. But here is an important quote from Maureen’s mom 

“'I think it is highly possible that (getting a protective order) played a role in her death. Maureen told me that when she told him about it, he said, 'You think you got it bad now - you'll have it a lot worse if you don't call the police and get this canceled.' At the time we thought it would protect her, but it didn't.' “

[John] 

Both Christian and Johnny have filed several appeals over the years, in both Maureen’s murder case and David’s attempted murder cases, but none of the arguments raised by their attorneys held up. As of this recording, all of their convictions stand. 

On April 15, 2023, nearly 23 years after his conviction, Christian died at High Desert State prison. He was 44 years old. According to the Sacramento Bee, he had been transferred there just two days earlier from Southern Desert Correctional Center. 

Annette Walker filed a lawsuit against the Nevada Department of Corrections about 2 months ago in April 2024, seeking answers about Christian’s death. The court documents she filed allege a potential cover-up by the Nevada DOC of Christian’s murder. 

[Shaun]

Here is a summary of what’s in the lawsuit. 

Christian was experiencing paranoia at Southern Desert; he believed someone was poisoning him. The decision was made to transfer him to High Desert. 

On the first day, Christian arrived at High Desert (April 13, 2023), he was transferred to UMC with a head injury. According to medical records, Christian had been hit in the head, possibly with a baton, but he told the nurses that he couldn’t remember what happened. He was struggling to speak. He had severe injuries to his face, lips, and scalp, and needed 17 stitches. 

On the following day, April 14, a porter brought Christian his dinner in his cell and found him moaning in pain, curled up, naked, in a pool of blood.  The porter alerted officers, but according to the complaint, no one checked on him the entire night.

The next morning, April 15, Christian was found dead, and after the autopsy, the coroner ruled his manner of death was “Natural.” as a result of “hypertensive cardiovascular disease,”

What was troubling to his mother was that his autopsy noted blunt force trauma to his head, neck, torso, shoulder, and legs, including multiple cuts and contusions on his face, and multiple contusions on his extremities and sides, and two black eyes. 

His mother maintains he was beaten to death by batons and punched and kicked and pepper sprayed. 

Annette told the press QUOTE

“Christian’s death raises serious questions about the treatment of inmates, about the conditions within our prisons, and about the very nature of our justice system. 

This lawsuit stands for something much larger than Christian. It stands for all those who came before and will come after Christian Walker. 

It stands as a loud, strong signal to NDOC officials that their careless attitude towards cruelty will no longer be tolerated and that their efforts to conspire to hide their organization’s wrongful actions will no longer be permitted. UNQUOTE

[John] 

Johnny Walker is currently incarcerated in Ely State Prison and his next parole hearing will be in September of 2028. 

Maureen is laid to rest in Las Vegas’ Woodlawn Cemetery which is one of the oldest cemeteries in Clark County. Her friends at Sunset High School were deeply saddened by her death and remembered her as a really nice person. One friend said that everyone who knew her liked her. 

Her stepdad said 'She had a really big heart and I think she thought she could help him.'

Her mom told the RJ 'I think there are a lot of battered women out there who are like Maureen; they think they can help their abuser. But they can't. They need to know if someone hits you one time, get away. Just get away.”

[Shaun]

It’s not always easy to get away, and it sounds like Maureen was trying to get away, but it was a struggle as it is for many survivors. You can always find a list of resources in our show notes and on our website that can help you or someone you care about. 

Thank you as always for listening. Make sure you’re following us on Social Media at sins and survivors and share your thoughts on this case. We love to hear from you. 

Until next week, remember what happens here happens everywhere.