Pair Held in Murder of Teen Vegas Runaway

Aug. 4, 2008— -- Authorities today identified the body of a teenage runaway found in a shallow grave in the Las Vegas desert, while the male and female suspects in her kidnapping and murder were expected in court to face charges in her death.

The Clark County Coroner's Office confirmed that Nichole Elizabeth Yegge, a 17-year-old endangered runaway reported missing in June, had died of asphyxiation in what it called a homicide.

Yegge would have turned 18 this Friday, according to the coroner's office.

Gabriel Yates, 31, and Anne Osburn, 21, were arrested Sunday and charged with first-degree kidnapping and murder in the teen's death. Both are being held without bail and were scheduled to appear in court this morning. It was unclear whether either suspect had hired an attorney.

Authorities originally did not identify the victim, citing next of kin notification. Officials did not say when her body was found.

The Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department received a tip July 28 that a runaway who had been living at a Las Vegas apartment complex had not been seen for several days and may have been the victim of a homicide.

The tip ultimately led investigators to a remote desert area northwest of Las Vegas, according to Ramon Denby, a spokesman for the Las Vegas Metropolitan police. Yegge's body had been dumped in a shallow grave east of the intersection of U.S. Highway 95 and Kyle Canyon Road.

"Our homicide guys started piecing things together," Denby told ABCNews.com. "Do we have any 17-year-old runaways? Where do they live? Who's hanging around the apartment with her?"

Yates and Osburn were arrested at the same apartment where Yegge had reportedly been living, Denby said.

Denby said it was unclear what the motive might have been for the alleged murder. The exact relationship between the suspects and the runaway was unclear, but police believe the three were living in the same apartment. "We believe they had all been friends and all living together at that address," Denby said. "We don't know the connection, but these folks were later arrested at the same apartment."

Denby, who described the investigation as ongoing, said that police are asking anyone who has additional information about Yegge or the suspects to come forward.

Clark County District Attorney David Roger told ABCNews.com that he does not comment on the ongoing investigations.

Yegge was one of 20 endangered runaways listed in Nevada, according to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.

There were roughly 1 million children and teenagers who either ran away or were thrown out of their homes in 1999, according to the most recent statistics available from the Department of Justice's Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention. Of those juveniles, about 357,000 of the cases were reported to police.

Stephanie Parker, the executive director of Nevada Child Seekers, a nonprofit organization, said that a runaway is often in as much danger as a juvenile who goes missing without explanation.

"A lot of the time they are young people who are trying to survive out on the street using any means possible to do so," said Parker, whose organization works as a liaison between law enforcement and the parents of juveniles missing in Las Vegas.

Parker said that parents of runaway children need to remain as active as possible in keeping a search alive. She urged parents to learn the names and to get contact information for anyone their children might spend time with. Too often runaways will become involved in drugs or prostitution, scenarios that put them in added risk.

"They're looking for acceptance and if they get acceptance from a predator, sometimes they're not lucky enough to get out of a situation," Parker said.