Sisters Deni Favela-Parra and Dusty Brekke, shown Tuesday, Dec. 28, 2021, in their home, are continuing a cause their now-deceased mother began in 1978. They’re trying to find out and bring to justice the person who killed their 15-year-old aunt Vickie Lynn Brekke and left her body near Sunrise Mountain.
Sunday, Jan. 2, 2022 | 2 a.m.
Sisters Deni Favela-Parra and Dusty Brekke of Las Vegas have spent most of their adult lives trying to figure out who killed their aunt.
It was originally a pursuit of their mother, Vickie Lynn Brekke, known in the family as Big Vic.
She was the one who had to identify the corpse of her younger half sister, also named Vickie Lynn, shortly after Little Vic was found dead May 8, 1978, on the outskirts of the valley.
Big Vic kept every page of the police file, every newspaper clipping and kept in touch with Metro Police cold case detectives every few months until she died in 2011, the sisters said.
“Yeah, she was obsessed, but it was because she loved her sister,” Deni said of Big Vic. “It was her sole mission up until she passed away.”
What the family knows is Little Vic was supposed to go over to a friend’s house the evening of May 7, 1978, and she never made it.
Her body was discovered by a passerby in the desert east of Sunrise Mountain. An autopsy revealed she had died of strangulation. She was 15.
Big Vic learned through news reports about the discovery of an unidentified body, and she got a sinking feeling in her stomach as the family grew worried that Little Vic hadn’t returned home.
Big Vic went to the police department and were asked to take a look at the body.
Little Vic’s body was nearly unidentifiable, Deni and Dusty recall their mother telling them. Her face was swollen and her hair was bloody and matted. But Big Vic knew it was her baby sister because of her unusual partially webbed feet.
Vickie Lynn Brekke was supposed to go over to a friend’s house the evening of May 7, 1978, and she never made it. Her body was discovered by a passerby in the desert east of Sunrise Mountain. Her murder remains unsolved.
“It pretty much traumatized my mom,” Deni said.
“It affected the way my mom parented,” Dusty added. “We couldn’t spend the night at anyone’s house. It didn’t matter if we were with family.”
With minimal updates from police about the case, Deni and Dusty took to the internet, sharing details of the crime and seeking tips or help from anyone, even psychics.
Dusty has been a lifelong Vegas local, and Deni has moved back to the valley in 2019 after living in Iwakuni, Japan and, most recently, in southern Georgia.
After their mother’s death, the sisters tried posting information about Little Vic’s deaths on online cold case forums. Deni tried to nudge relatives to talk with local media outlets about the case before she moved back to Las Vegas just before the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“I was just so far away,” Deni said. “It was so hard to help until I moved back here.”
They’ve talked about it on true crime podcasts and launched the “Who Killed Vickie Lynn Brekke?” Facebook page with 122 members, mostly internet sleuths intrigued by the case.
So far, nothing has turned up.
But recent breakthroughs in several Las Vegas-area cold case murders from the late 1970s and early 80s have given them hope Little Vic’s killing will be solved too.
Deni has reached out to Vegas Helps, a nonprofit backed by Las Vegas philanthropist Justin Woo. Woo also recently founded the Vegas Justice League which funds research of cases that are sent to Texas-based Othram Inc., which specializes in human DNA analysis to resolve unsolved murders and identify victims.
His contributions led to solving the 1979 abduction, rape and killing of 16-year-old Western High School student Kim Bryant and the 1983 rape and murder of 22-year-old Diana Hanson, who was visiting her parents at their Las Vegas home on a college break.
Both killings were attributed to Johnny Blake Peterson, who was 19 when Bryant was murdered and died in 1993, police said.
“Do we have our own theories as a family, thinking back and looking at things ourselves? Yeah, we do have our own little theories,” Deni said. “But we are not ruling anything out. We want everything looked at.”
Some family members have given up hope of seeing Little Vic’s killer brought to justice. “They didn’t want to think about it” anymore, Dusty said. “It would mean a lot for us to figure it out for them.”
But there may be reason for hope. Deni said she’s been in contact with Metro Police in recent weeks regarding Little Vic’s case.
Ken Hefner, a cold case investigator, told her in an email that “an extensive amount of work has been done recently, particularly with DNA. I’m not sure what the future holds but her case has not been forgotten.” In the same message, however, Hefner said he could not share any specifics about the case while it remained under investigation.
Hefner could not be reached for comment for this story. Metro declined to discuss the case, but Officer Larry Hadfield, a Metro spokesman, said last week that “nothing at this point that links her death to any other homicides.”
Police have also denied a public records request for the case file, citing the open investigation.
Deni is optimistic, however, that the case is headed in the right direction.
“I think this is the most activity that I’ve felt we’ve had since I’ve started looking into it over the years; definitely the most since my mom passed,” she said.
And because of that, Desi, Dusty and the other relatives who are still holding out hope will continue doing just that.
“I just want it to keep going. I just don’t want it to stop. I want it to keep going until we find answers.”
