Unfortunately, Las Vegas has been in the spotlight for some very unwelcome high-profile crimes in recent years, including the 2012 murder of Palms cocktail waitress Shauna Ann Castleton Tiaffay.
The gruesome case has been the subject of an episode of A&E's "The First 48," which has not yet aired (see QoD 12/23/13), based on the events of Saturday, September 29, 2012. It was early that morning that the estranged wife of West Point graduate and Las Vegas firefighter George Tiaffay, and mother of the couple's eight-year-old daughter Maddie, was found bludgeoned do death with a hammer in her Summerlin home.
The body was discovered by her husband when he arrived at Shauna's house with their child. Tiaffay had been working a 24-hour shift, allegedly as part of his effort to secure an alibi. He's accused of hiring homeless handyman-turned-hitman Noel Stevens a mere $600 to murder his former wife, who had also just got off working the graveyard shift at the Palms and was still in her cocktail-waitress uniform.
While Tiaffay, who apparently tried but failed to commit suicide when police began questioning his mother and sister, has pleaded not-guilty to all charges, Stevens took a plea bargain and confessed to everything. His version of events is apparently corroborated by pertinent surveillance footage and phone records, while Tiaffay's motive was said to be the ongoing bitter divorce proceedings between the couple, who had separated earlier in the year.
Both accused parties are currently being held without bail in Clark County Detention Center but Stevens is not due to be sentenced until after Tiaffay's trial has taken place. This was scheduled to commence January 6 of this year but has now been postponed to June 2 after a continuance was requested by the defense and granted by Judge Tao at a hearing last December.
In the meantime, family and friends have formed a support group, Justice4Shauna, and encourage anyone with any information that may help in seeing that justice is done in this case to contact them. Shauna's family can be reached at [email protected]; the case number is LVMPD EVT#120929-1516.
