Shocking surveillance footage showed the moment a Las Vegas lesbian allegedly dumped her friend's mother's body on the side of the road in broad daylight before speeding off to murder her friend a block away.
Rosemary Meza, 37, faces two counts of murder in the September deaths of her friend Alyssa Valdovinos, 26, and her friend's mother, Norma Rios-Valdovinos, 58.
Prosecutors have now released footage showing Meza recklessly throwing Rios-Valdovinos' body onto the sidewalk after allegedly strangling her with a shoelace that was later found in her vehicle during a car accident.
As investigators examined the body found on the side of the road, a welfare check was conducted at the home of Meza's girlfriend, during which they discovered that Valdovinos had died of suspected strangulation with the same shoelace.
Rosemary Meza, 37, is accused of strangling her friend and her friend's mother with a shoelace on Sept. 18
Norma Rios Valdovinos, 58, (left) and her daughter Alyssa Valdovinos (right) were both found strangled within hours of each other in Las Vegas
The video showing Meza committing the murders appears to have been taken by police from a home security system and shows a gray car pulling up to the side of the road across the street.
Meza, prosecutors say, then gets out of the car, goes around the back, opens the rear passenger door and drags out a body.
Officers responded to the scene shortly after 6 p.m. and found that Rios-Valdovinos had “deep ligature marks on her neck” and it “appeared that she had been attacked and defended,” 8NewsNow reports.
Paramedics took Rios-Valdovinos to the hospital, but she was pronounced dead upon arrival.
Later that same evening, police responded to reports of a car accident about three miles from where the mother's body was found. Officials said Meza crashed her car into construction equipment.
A blood-soaked shoelace was allegedly found in Meza's vehicle after the murders, believed to be the murder weapon after ligature marks were found on both victims
When investigators spoke with Meza, it reportedly emerged that she was a person of interest in the body found earlier in the day, particularly because it matched the description of the person seen carrying it body dumped.
Officers also reportedly found blood smears on the armrest of the car's center console and on shoelaces in the vehicle that Meza is believed to have used in the alleged murders.
While in custody, the 37-year-old confessed to her friend's murder, according to the transcript of a grand jury indictment.
The officer who spoke to Meza claimed to the grand jury that she “just told me she was a bad person and that I should just kill her now.”
“And I said, 'No, I wouldn't do that, I wouldn't do that to anyone.' And then she said that she hurt her friend and her friend's mother,” the officer said.
The video showing Meza committing the murders appears to have been taken by police from a home security system and shows a gray car pulling up to the side of the road across the street
Prosecutors allege that Meza is seen in the video opening the rear passenger door in broad daylight and dragging out a body
The footage shows the gray vehicle driving away, leaving Rios-Valdovinos' body on the road. Investigators said she had “deep ligature marks on her neck” and “it appears she was attacked and was defending herself.”
Later that day, Valdovinos' home was searched, with investigators finding her dead on the floor, apparently strangled
Officers then conducted a fateful welfare check at Valdovinos' home, just about a block from where her mother's body was found earlier in the day near Las Vegas Boulevard.
Police say they found Valdovinos dead on the floor and it is feared she was strangled with the same shoelace used to kill her mother.
Investigators suspect Meza committed the murders by first driving to Rios-Valdovinos' workplace earlier in the day, where she allegedly strangled her.
According to 8NewsNow, Meza reportedly told officers that she could not remember whether she dumped Rios-Valdovinos' body before or after strangling Valdovinos.
Her next court date is Jan. 4, and prosecutors wrote in their filings that they will leave the death penalty on the table if Meza is convicted.