Police ID suspect in slaying of noted Las Vegas musician

By Ricardo Torres-Cortez

Thursday, Jan. 5, 2017 | 2:45 p.m.

Metro Police say they have identified a suspect in the death of a 70-year-old renowned symphony viola player who was asphyxiated in her east valley townhouse in July.

Officer Laura Meltzer today identified Jorge Vasquez-Rivero as a suspect in the death of Mary Margaret Trimble. A second person, who hasn’t been identified or arrested, also is believed to have been involved in the slaying, she said.

Vasquez-Rivero is in federal custody in an unrelated case, but once he’s released, he will be booked at the Clark County Detention Center on counts of murder, kidnapping, robbery, burglary and possession of marijuana with intent to sell, Meltzer said.

Details about his federal case or how he was identified as a suspect in Trimble’s slaying were not immediately available.

A cleaning crew found Trimble dead about 10 a.m. July 20 at her ransacked house on Dawnflower Street, near Mojave Road, police said. She was asphyxiated, according to the Clark County Coroner’s Office.

Trimble was last seen alive the previous afternoon when she went out to run errands, police said. There was no evidence of forced entry at the house, police said.

In the 1970s, Trimble was a violist in showrooms at Caesars Palace and the old Desert Inn, performing with the likes of Frank Sinatra and Sammy Davis Jr., a friend said. She also was a founding member of the Las Vegas Philharmonic and the Nevada Chamber Symphony.