According to cops and loved ones, a “toxic” boyfriend who has been terrorizing his Las Vegas girlfriend in a “on-again, off-again” relationship since high school allegedly shot and killed the 24-year-old woman while they were driving.
Police say the man then drove around with his deceased girlfriend for nearly two hours before calling an acquaintance to “meet him in the desert to help him get rid of her body.”
“They will see me on [camera],” Julio Machado Vasquez allegedly told the acquaintance, who called 911 and reported the incident, according to a police report obtained by local CBS affiliate KLAS.
The caller claimed Machado Vasquez was afraid of taking his girlfriend, Gissell Selene Perez, to the hospital after “accidentally” shooting her in the back of the head on Sunday, Jan. 19, while they were riding in Machado Vasquez’s blue Ford Mustang.
Officers from the Las Vegas Metro Police Department discovered Machado Vasquez driving the Mustang near Sandhill Road and Stewart Avenue after receiving a call about what had occurred.
Officers attempted to stop the 24-year-old murder suspect, but he fled and collided with another vehicle at the intersection of East Charleston Boulevard and North Pecos Road, injuring him and requiring hospitalization.
“[Cops] observed a female in the Ford Mustang suffering from an apparent gunshot wound,” LVMPD officials stated in a press release. “Medical personnel responded and pronounced the female deceased at the scene.”
Before the crash, Machado Vasquez told a female acquaintance that he was “driving around with [Perez’] body near east Sahara, where the road ends.”
The woman told investigators she received a call from him shortly after 7:30 a.m. and that he appeared “panicked” about what had occurred.
Machado Vasquez allegedly told her, “It was an accident,” according to the police report obtained by KLAS.
He claimed that Perez was arguing with him and grabbed a gun he was carrying in the car, which he then snatched back from her and pointed at his own head, according to the police report.
“If you’re going to do it, do it right,” he claimed to have advised Perez.
Machado Vasquez informed the female acquaintance that he had the handgun’s safety activated and was “testing” Perez. He claimed that the weapon then fired randomly.
According to police, Machado Vasquez drove around with Perez’s body for about an hour and a half before crashing his Mustang.
According to the acquaintance who called 911, Perez and Machado Vasquez’s relationship has been “on-again, off-again” since high school.
She described the relationship as “toxic,” as did one of Perez’s friends, Diana Barrios, who spoke with Law&Crime about her death.
“There were times where she’d call me because she was afraid to leave the house,” Barrios told me. “He would sit outside her house and watch her for hours. She’d be in her house, terrified, watching him through the cameras in her room.”
The 24-year-old friend described Machado Vasquez’s behavior toward Perez while Barrios was with her as “extremely toxic.” She would block him, and he would make up new numbers and mess with her, sometimes even threatening her.
Things got so bad one night in November that Perez asked Barrios to pick her up because she was afraid of being alone.
“She was really scared,” Barrios explained. “She told me he had a gun and that things were bad between them.”
People close to Perez, including her family, have confirmed to KLAS and other media outlets that she and Machado Vasquez had a tumultuous relationship, as described in the police report.
According to KLAS, the female acquaintance who called 911 told police that Machado Vasquez was always carrying a firearm.
Machado Vasquez is currently being held in the Clark County Detention Center without bail for open murder with a deadly weapon, according to LVMPD officials. He was scheduled to appear in court on Wednesday, but had to miss due to “medical reasons.”
A GoFundMe campaign has been launched to help the Perez family cope with her death.
“We had so much fun together,” Barrios told Law & Crime. I texted her Saturday morning. We were supposed to get sushi and go hiking. She told me, “I just got my lashes done…” I am not prepared. That was the last day we spoke. She’d just had her eyelashes done. “It’s just so sad.”
