1979 Murder of Kim Bryant Solved
Press conference announcing the identification of a suspect in the murder of Kim Bryant. (KTNV/Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department)
We previously wrote about the case of 16-year-old Kim Bryant, who was abducted from a Dairy Queen across the street from Western High School in 1979. Her body was later found in the desert near the intersection of Buffalo Avenue and Charleston Boulevard.
The murder of Kim Bryant remained unsolved for over four decades. But in late 2021, police were able to use DNA evidence to link the murder to Johnny Blake Peterson.
Sketch of teenage suspect seen harassing girls at Western High School in the days leading up to the abduction of Kim Bryant, and mugshot of Johnny Blake Peterson - murderer of Kim Bryant and Diana Hanson (Las Vegas-Clark County Library District/Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department)
Police suspected a range of suspects in the Bryant murder, including serial killer Stephen Peter Morin. But it seems early eyewitness reports of the suspects may have ultimately been the most accurate.
In the days leading up to the Bryant abduction, two girls at Western High School had been approached by two men driving a 1955-57 Chevy bearing Nevada plates and sporting a coat of silver primer paint with light primer spots and raised back wheels. The men attempted to entice the girls into their car with an offer to sell them jewelry, but the students grew suspicious when they peered in the backseat and saw only a large walnut-grained speaker. When the girls rebuffed their offer, the men in the car yelled obscenities and drove away.
The two students provided independent descriptions of the events to police and both got a clear look at the passenger in the Chevy, allowing police to create the first sketch of a potential suspect in the Bryant case. The 18-to-19-year-old man in the drawing hosts shaggy blond hair and droopy stoner eyes. The girls also said they remember the driver as a man in his early twenties with a mustache and medium brown hair. Detective Bob Hilliard, head of the murder investigation, said of the suspects, “Both looked like grubby, hippy types.” The two teenage witnesses also reported the additional detail that the men had been seen approaching other students earlier in the day, including a group of male students near the Western High School parking lot.
One of the few consistent facts throughout the Kim Bryant investigation is that Kim and her friend were approached by an old Chevy while they waited in front of the Dairy Queen. She and her friend exchanged obscenities with the occupants of the car before it sped off down Decatur Boulevard. The two unidentified witnesses that were solicited by the occupants of the Chevy both told police that the men became enraged when the girls refused to get in their car.
Was Johnny Peterson the passenger in the vehicle? And if he was, it is an open question as to whether the driver of the vehicle was also involved in Kim Bryant’s abduction and murder.
Local press coverage of police efforts to solve the murder of Diana Hanson. (Las Vegas-Clark County Library District)
After identifying Peterson as the person responsible for Bryant’s murder, police also identified him as the culprit behind the 1983 murder of 22-year-old Diana Hanson.
Hanson was in Las Vegas while home from college for the holidays. She went jogging on an afternoon in late-December but never returned home. Her body was later found in the desert not far from where Bryant’s remains were located.
Unfortunately, Peterson died in 1993 before he could face justice for the murders of Bryant and Hanson.
The site where Kim Bryant disappeared on January 26, 1979. This building at 115 N. Decatur Boulevard was a Dairy Queen at that time. (Google Maps)
The efforts of Las Vegas philanthropist Justin Woo and Othram labs assisted in processing the DNA evidence that resulted in the resolution of the Kim Bryant case.
Sources:
https://www.8newsnow.com/news/local-news/murder-cold-case-solved-after-42-years-using-dna-testing-genealogical-work/
https://lasvegassun.com/news/2021/dec/07/metro-links-second-cold-case-killing-to-man-now-de/