New York grandmother found dead near Las Vegas airport as Bitcoin texts from her phone stoke fraud concerns
LAS VEGAS, Aug. 22. Alisa Goods, 63, a grandmother of five from New York, was found dead Thursday in a drainage ditch near Wayne Newton Boulevard and the Terminal 1 parking garage at Harry Reid International Airport, Las Vegas Metropolitan Police reported. She had been missing since Aug. 8. Four days after she was last seen, messages arrived from her phone requesting gas money and Bitcoin ($BTC), her family said.
Key takeaways
- Alisa Goods, a 63-year-old grandmother of five from New York, was found dead Thursday in a drainage ditch near Wayne Newton Boulevard and the Terminal 1 parking garage at Harry Reid International Airport in Las Vegas.
- Goods had been missing since Aug. 8, when she left a friend's apartment to take a bus to a nearby CVS and never returned.
- Four days after she was last seen, messages from Goods' phone began arriving on Aug. 12 requesting gas money and Bitcoin, which her family found suspicious because she did not drive and had no car in Las Vegas.
- Surveillance footage appeared to show Goods falling down an embankment, getting back up, and then collapsing on Aug. 8, with no further movement observed afterward.
- It was not immediately clear who sent the Bitcoin and gas-money messages from her phone, and the family said they were still trying to learn the details of her death.
LAS VEGAS, Aug. 22. Alisa Goods, 63, a grandmother of five from New York, was found dead Thursday in a drainage ditch near Wayne Newton Boulevard and the Terminal 1 parking garage at Harry Reid International Airport, Las Vegas Metropolitan Police reported. She had been missing since Aug. 8. Four days after she was last seen, messages arrived from her phone requesting gas money and Bitcoin ($BTC), her family said.
Goods had been visiting a longtime friend, Roger John, who told KLAS-TV she left his apartment near Maryland Parkway and Tropicana Avenue around 12:45 p.m. on Aug. 8 to take a bus to a nearby CVS to buy iron pills. She never returned. John told the station he was not immediately alarmed because Goods sometimes spent hours shopping. When she failed to come back, he began calling and texting her, then contacted her family.
Police reviewed surveillance footage that appeared to show Goods falling down an embankment, getting back up, and then collapsing on Aug. 8, with no further movement observed after that point, according to KTNV. Additional footage from that afternoon showed a woman believed to be Goods near the airport. Officers located the body early Thursday after a caller reported a deceased woman in the area. She was pronounced dead at the scene.
The Bitcoin request
Her family filed a missing person report on Aug. 10. Messages from Goods' phone began arriving on Aug. 12. The sender asked for gas money and Bitcoin. Niece Alana Calloway told CBS News the requests were suspicious from the start: Goods did not drive and had no car in Las Vegas. "What do you need gas for? The car? My aunt does not drive. There is no car," Calloway said. The family had previously said the texts raised concern that Goods may have been kidnapped.
Calloway had told KLAS-TV before the body was found that the disappearance was out of character. "She has a family that loves her, cares about her. We want her home and want her home safe and alive," she said at the time. In a statement to KTNV on Friday, Calloway said the family was still trying to learn the details surrounding Goods' death. It was not immediately clear who sent the messages from her phone.