Metro Police
Andrew Klophaus
Wednesday, Jan. 8, 2020 | 9:30 p.m.
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On the often-harsh Las Vegas streets, the man was simply known as “Rusty.”
Just before daybreak Monday, someone called 911 to report that the man was underneath some blankets, lying on cardboard, unconscious.
At the fenced-in desert lot, off Nellis Boulevard and Vegas Valley Drive, officers confirmed his death, concluding they were dealing with the slaying of a victim tentatively identified as Joshua Pyzer, a man in his early 40s.
An initial scan for witnesses proved unsuccessful, but detectives soon caught a break when a woman came forward, according to a Metro Police arrest report.
She knew of an associate, “white Andrew,” who’d come to her and told her about a fight between Rusty and him that had “gone too far.”
He wasn’t direct, she said, but when she asked if Rusty had died, he nodded, she told police. Shown a photo of Andrew Klophaus, 33, she confirmed he and “white Andrew” were the same person.
Klophaus, the woman said, then told her that police were going to be looking for him for a “murder” and that he needed help thinking up an alibi.
Detectives had their work cut out for them.
Klophaus had been picked up by cops Sunday on an unrelated drug charge. He was still at the Clark County Detention Center when detectives interviewed him Monday.
He’d known Rusty for about three months and they’d shot heroin in the desert area several times, he told detectives. He said he’d heard about the death but denied involvement, police said.
At the jail, detectives found a stained shirt that belonged to Klophaus that tested positive for blood, according to the arrest report.
