On the evening of December 16, 2002, a man was found dead from an apparent gunshot wound to the chest in the parking lot of the Rancho Verde Apartments at 98 S. Martin Luther King Boulevard in Las Vegas. Law enforcement arrived just before 7 p.m.; the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department Homicide Section opened the investigation as case number 021216-2118. The victim was identified as Manuel Maldonado, also known as Manuel Ramirez.

Initial scene information was limited: no motive, no publicly identified suspects, and no clear witness accounts placing Maldonado at the complex earlier that day. Detectives canvassed the area and worked to establish his last movements, but the investigation eventually went cold and Maldonado’s death remains an unsolved homicide. Anyone with information about Manuel Maldonado or the circumstances of that night is asked to contact the LVMPD Homicide Section.