Las Vegas police identified the woman who is being accused of murdering a nail salon owner after failing to pay for her $35 manicure.
via People:
Police say they are looking for 21-year-old Krystal Whipple in the death of 53-year-old “Annie” Nhu Nguyen, who was run over and killed Dec. 29 as she was trying to stop Whipple from leaving the parking lot of her business, Crystal Nails & Spa, about 40 blocks from the Las Vegas Strip.
“We are asking the public’s help if they have knowledge of where this person is to contact the homicide section,” Officer Larry Hadfield tells PEOPLE on Thursday.
Police say Whipple stopped by the salon to get a manicure around 3:45 p.m. Saturday. She allegedly attempted to pay with a fraudulent credit card. When the credit card payment didn’t go through she allegedly said she would get cash from her black 2017 Chevrolet Camaro, but instead started to drive away.
According to police, Nguyen ran out to stop her and allegedly jumped in front of Whipple’s vehicle. Police say Whipple accelerated the Camaro in the parking lot and Nguyen was “thrown under.”
Police found the Camaro at a nearby apartment complex. The Camaro was a rental but had not been returned.
Hadfield says the person who rented the vehicle had nothing to do with the incident.
“It is totally unrelated,” he says. “How [Whipple] came to have the car is part of the investigation but she is no relation to the person who was on the rental agreement.”
A GoFundMe page for Nguyen, which has raised over $21,000 so far, described her as a hard-working single mother of three girls who worked tirelessly to support her family.
“She had been constantly putting in 12-14 hours a day, seven days a week to send her daughters to college and to support her mother, siblings, and grandchildren,” according to the page. “Allowing them to have a greater opportunity in life, she worked endlessly to the point where she would skip eating until after hours so they would not have to work as hard as she did. She would never buy anything for herself. Any gifts that she received would be passed to her daughters, rather than keeping it for herself. She never asked for anything in return, besides more grandchildren. Every penny that she had accumulated always go towards her family.”
“This event should not have happened over a bill at a nail salon,” Hadfield previously told PEOPLE. “Over a bill in a nail salon, it is nothing to kill someone for.”
Anyone with information about Whipple’s whereabouts should contact the LVMPD Homicide Section at (702) 828-3521 or by email at: [email protected].
What a senseless murder.
