Thursday, Dec. 11, 1997 | 10:50 a.m.
A Canadian tourist whose partially clad body was found Tuesday morning on a fire-escape landing at the Imperial Palace had been playing poker just before he mysteriously disappeared, Metro Police said.
Donald Idiens, 53, of Gold River, British Columbia, had been staying with friends while visiting Las Vegas. Homicide Sgt. Ken Hefner said Idiens was sitting with friends at a poker table Monday night at The Mirage hotel-casino when he left the table without saying anything.
"He got up casually, like he was going to go to the bathroom or take a break," Hefner said. "He didn't say goodbye or anything. He never came back."
Hefner said Idiens, a real estate developer who had just finished building a subdivision in Canada, "left money on the poker table." He declined to say whether Idiens had any more money with him when he left the table.
Idiens' friends, after seeing reports about the murder, called homicide and told them the victim's description sounded like their friend, Hefner said.
Idiens died from a head injury, police said.
Investigators were planning to look at surveillance videotape from The Mirage today to see if he was with anyone when he disappeared and what his movements were there, Hefner said.
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