Sins & Survivors: A Las Vegas True Crime Podcast - Justice for Tabatha

Episode Date: November 14, 2023

Las Vegas model and entertainer Tabatha Tozzi had a bright future, but jealousy turned deadly. Shot by her boyfriend during an argument, her murder remains unresolved as her accused killer, Oswaldo Natanahel Perez-Sanchez, is still on the run. Friends and family continue to fight for justice. Will Nate ever be caught? This case highlights the deadly consequences of domestic violence and the urgent need for awareness. Throughout the discussion, the hosts emphasize the efforts of Tabatha's loved ones to seek justice. They paint a poignant picture of Tabatha's life, emphasizing her kindness, generosity, and the impact she had on those around her. Please listen and take action to support the ongoing pursuit of justice for Tabatha Tozzi.https://sinspod.co/episode104sources Domestic Violence Resourceshttp://sinspod.co/resourcesClick here to become a member of our Patreon!https://sinspod.co/patreonVisit and join our Patreon now and access our ad-free episodes and exclusive bonus content & schwag!Apple Podcast Subscriptionshttps://sinspod.co/appleWe're now offering premium membership benefits on Apple Podcast Subscriptions! On your mobile deviceLet us know what you think about the episodehttps://www.buzzsprout.com/twilio/text_messages/2248640/open_sms Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase, I may receive a commission at no extra cost to you.Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/sins-survivors-a-las-vegas-true-crime-podcast--6173686/support.

To listen ad-free, visit Zinspod.co slash subscribe. Starting at $2.99 a month, you'll also get access to our exclusive bonus content episodes when you join through Patreon or Apple subscriptions. Thanks for supporting the show! Las Vegas is without a doubt the entertainment capital of the world, with A-list performers lighting up the strip every night of the week. In clubs all over town, large and small, every night is a party, and your hosts work hard to keep the drinks flowing and make sure you feel like a VIP. For one Las Vegas model and entertainer, her boyfriend's admiration became obsession and jealousy. An argument after a night out turned deadly, and Tabitha's loved ones have been searching for justice ever since.

Tabitha's story is another tragic tale of domestic violence in Las Vegas. In this episode, the pursuit of justice takes center stage. Welcome back to Sins and Survivors, a Las Vegas true crime podcast with a focus on domestic violence cases. I'm Sean, and with me, as always, is the one and only John. I am the only John in the room. Like we said at the top of the show, Tabitha's loved ones are seeking answers, justice, and accountability. Her family has called attention to the number of domestic violence homicides that happen in Las Vegas every year. Sadly, their daughter and friend, Tabitha, was just one of at least 25 women murdered by an intimate partner so far this year in Las Vegas.

So, John, do you want to start us off with some information about the case we're talking about today? Sure. case this week is a story of Tabitha Tozzi, who was murdered by her boyfriend, Oswaldo Nathaniel Perez Sanchez, on April 22nd, 2023, just seven months ago. She was born June 21st, 1996, so she was 26 at the time of her murder, and she was born in Japan, according to her mom's Instagram. Her Facebook says that she was from Sao Paulo, Brazil, though. Tabitha moved to Las Vegas from Los Angeles when she was about eight years old. Her mom's name is Regina Lacerda, and she is an only child. Tabitha has said how Regina raised her as a single mom with the help of her grandma. Tabitha was the main breadwinner for her family. And she also supported her grandmother in Brazil who has dementia.

Her mother is quoted as saying, She was my life. She was not only my daughter, she was my best friend. We have a lot of quotes about Tabitha, so I'm going to go through a few of them here to give you a sense of who she was. One of her teachers commented on her memorial website, which of course we will link in the show notes. I had the privilege of being Tabby's teacher in 7th and 8th grade. She was a beautiful soul, and I deeply cherished the time we spent together in English and speech and debate. She had a fiery temperament, and I knew even then she would grow up to be a spirited young woman. I was always proud of her ability to face challenges and adversity, and it is a true loss

that she was taken from us so soon. She was a graduate of Cimarron Memorial High School here in the Northwest Valley, and later graduated from esthetician school. She was extremely popular, as you may have already guessed, and very, very well liked. She worked in the Las Vegas club scene and had more than 37,000 followers on Instagram and almost 3,800 friends on Facebook. She was a dog mom who enjoyed writing poetry, which she often posted about on her second Instagram account. We'll get back to that later. And her very last Instagram post was her declaring her support for Brazil in

the World Cup game. Her employer, Zai Las Vegas on Fremont Street, issued a statement saying, Tabitha was an integral part of our team. She will never be forgotten. One of her friends described her by saying, if you saw her, you saw light. And you'll start to see some recurring themes in the things that people say about her. Other things people have said about her include that she was very kind, loving, peaceful, inspirational to her friends, supportive, and empowering. Beautiful inside and out. She was described as a real-life guardian angel. That's part of the recurring theme. In fact, when you go through some of the Reddit threads that one of her friends posted, that's very much a recurring theme, that although she was obviously beautiful on the outside, that she was an amazing person on the inside, too.

And sometimes people would miss that. Regarding her alleged murderer, Oswaldo Nathaniel Perez Sanchez, and of course, Perez Sanchez is innocent until proven guilty in a court of law, but as we'll talk about in a little bit, Tabitha had a friend of hers with her when this all went down who witnessed the entire thing firsthand. Can I just jump in here real quick? Yes. I just want to add that Tabitha really believed in looking out for people and giving back.

I saw a post on her Instagram where she was collecting donations in support of homeless people. So you can see that she really used her influencer status to help others. And as you mentioned, she had 37,000 fans and friends on Instagram. In addition to all of those friends and her mom, Tabitha is being mourned by her chihuahua Lulu. Following Tabitha's death, there was some reporting that Lulu was sitting at the door like she was waiting for Tabitha to come home. So back to, unfortunately, Oswaldo. Oswaldo Nathaniel Perez Sanchez,

who went by Nate, is currently 27 years old. He was 26 at the time of the murder. He was born May 16th, 1996. And we could not find very much in local criminal history here in Las Vegas, although we did find an uncontested divorce in the family court with no children prior to meeting Tabitha. And as far as his personality goes, he had demonstrated very clearly that he was very much obsessed with Tabitha. The main evidence for that is that he got a tattoo of her face on his upper right arm while they were dating. So that

doesn't seem like the most stable of behavior, but it does make him easier to identify. And when we post photos of him, we will be sure to include those photos as well. We don't know a ton about her relationship because most of her social media posts were about modeling, but we do know that Tabitha allegedly called her mom and a friend the morning of Saturday, April 22nd, the day of the murder, to say she was trying to get away from her boyfriend. Tabitha's mother said in an interview with Channel 13 here in Las Vegas Yeah, this is a quote from that interview. Regina said the day before the murder, Tabitha said to her, Mom, I'm not happy. I'm trying to break up with him, but I'm afraid. And Regina asked Tabitha, of what? Tabitha replied that she was afraid Oswaldo was

going to do something to himself. And Regina then asked, to himself or to you? And Tabitha's friends told Channel 3 News that they didn't really know a lot about Tabitha's boyfriend because Tabitha's friends told Channel 3 News that they didn't really know a lot about Tabitha's boyfriend because Tabitha and Oswaldo had been dating for less than eight months. One friend said that she respected Tabitha's judgment and that she didn't feel like the friend and other friends needed to press Tabitha that she needed to leave Oswaldo or anything like that. As you mentioned, her friends believe that Oswaldo was obsessed with Tabitha and jealous, which was indicated by that tattoo he got of her face before they even really started dating. And one friend had said that Oswaldo, he was more obsessed with Tabitha than he was in love with her,

and that he didn't want to share her and the light that she gave off. He didn't want to share that with the world. And another friend has stated that she felt there were warning signs that the relationship was abusive or potentially abusive. She said that Tabitha was not able to go out when Tabitha wanted to go out and that she had to be on speakerphone. Whenever Tabitha was talking to a friend on the phone or whatever, Oswaldo would have her put the phone on speaker so he could hear the conversation. So there's a lot of controlling behavior, obsessive, jealous behavior that we were kind of hearing about from these friends, even though someone said, oh, there weren't a lot

of red flags because it was only eight months in. I think taking as a whole these little bits and pieces that the mom and other friends have seen that it looks like there was some indication that this relationship was abusive or had the potential to become abusive. And to be clear, we're not here to question her choices in who to date or do any sort of Monday morning quarterbacking on why she didn't see the signs earlier. None of that stuff. We are not here for that. We're just pointing out some of the things that we know were true and, you know, just examining them in retrospect, some of the stuff is pretty, pretty crazy. So as far as the murder itself goes, it happened on Saturday, April 22nd, 2023, just seven months ago at 11 a.m. Happened at the 8100 block of Lager Drive, which is on

just off South Cimarron Road and north of Alta in North Las Vegas. So, Tozzi's friend who was with her at the time of the murder, who has said in a couple of places she wants to remain anonymous, said they were returning from a night out on Saturday morning when a fight between Tozzi and her boyfriend escalated. Tozzi's friend said that Tabitha was trying to leave in her own vehicle, but that Perez Sanchez would not let her, and he had taken her keys. He then shot her in the head. So after that, Tosi's friend said Perez Sanchez approached her in her car with a gun, demanding

that she get out of the vehicle. So the friend let him take her car and then rush to Tabitha to help her. She said that at first she couldn't tell where Tabitha had been injured, but she called for help and that Tabitha was still alive, gasping and fighting while they waited 10 minutes for the police and first responders to arrive. I just want to add that John and I will continue to research and try and find information about this case. But these part of the facts kind of get jumbled depending on which news source you're following or which friend or Tabitha's mother is speaking about what happened. Sometimes it sounds as if Tabitha may have been shot in the apartment, that Oswaldo shot her in the apartment when Tabitha was trying to leave.

Other times it sounds like Tabitha was in her own car when she was shot. It's my understanding that Oswaldo then carjacked the friend and took the friend's car, but sometimes it sounds, with the pronouns get mixed up and when people are being kept anonymous, it sometimes sounds like

maybe it was Tabitha's car he stole. But in any way you look at it, Oswaldo shot Tabitha, her friend was there when that happened, and then Oswaldo stole either Tabitha's car or Tabitha's friend's car. So that car was later recovered with him nowhere to be found. She was taken to UMC and put on life support,

and she died on Monday night with about two dozen people at her bedside, her friend said. Tabitha was an organ donor and potentially saved dozens of lives through that, according to Channel 13 News. how giving she was and that she really cared about everyone around her. So it follows that she would be an organ donor thinking about other people, not just herself. Going back to the morning of the murder, Regina, Tabitha's mom, stated that she received a terrifying phone call from Tabitha asking her mom to come and pick her up. And detectives investigating the murder determined that Tabitha had been in an argument with Oswaldo, her boyfriend, before being shot. And during that argument, the boyfriend took out a firearm, shot her, and then fled the scene. That is as much as John and I have about an official police statement about what

happened the day of the murder. According to Tabitha's GoFundMe, Regina, her mom, raced over in a panic. And this is what her mom said, quote, when I arrived at the scene, it was the worst fear any mother could have. My daughter had been shot by the man who claimed to love her and whom I trusted with my daughter, who was my entire world. She is all I had left and my heart is completely shattered. And in a news interview later, Regina said, I went blind because my heart said that something was very wrong and I couldn't make it. I couldn't make it there on time to save my daughter. And it's just, it's really hard to imagine that level of fear or pain that Regina was experiencing after getting that phone call and rushing to the scene and getting there too late to save her daughter.

So moving on to the investigation, which is extremely frustrating. The Clark County coroner announced on May 2nd. Remember, the murder took place on April 22nd, so the Clark County coroner announced on May 2nd that her death was a homicide. Las Vegas Metro Police announced also on May 2nd that Perez Sanchez is a person of interest, so that was nearly two weeks later, and that's when they released his photo. One of Tabitha's friends said that when she heard the police had finally released his name as suspect, she cried happy tears and is finally happy that his name and face are out there.

So Perez Sanchez is still out there and wanted for murder. constituting domestic violence with threat or use of physical force, robbery with the use of a deadly weapon or tear gas, and grand larceny of a motor vehicle. And unfortunately, we don't know where he is. A lot of theories on Reddit from her friends and seem to indicate that they think he might have gone back to California. If you look at a lot of his photos, you'll see he's wearing a lot of Dodgers paraphernalia. We've never really been able to find out where he's from, where he grew up. But some also suspect that he has fled all the way to Mexico. But he is in the wind.

As far as the aftermath goes, the family had several events to honor her. Her friends and family packed into a funeral, which was open to the public. And it was standing room only at her funeral. They also had a candlelight vigil and gathered in a local park to celebrate her life. And it's important to know that many of her friends and family are still working very hard to find Oswaldo and bring him to justice and to keep Tabitha's story at the front of people's minds. Yeah, most recently on October 22nd, 2023, her friends and family held a peaceful protest

because Oswaldo hadn't been apprehended yet. They gathered in front of Las Vegas Metro Police's headquarters to draw attention to the case and to basically demand the police for an update about where this investigation stands and their efforts to locate Oswaldo and arrest him. With his photo being released 10 days after her murder, when the police had a friend as an eyewitness and Oswaldo took off in that car, like I said, it was either Tabitha's car or her friend's car. It's completely understandable why her friends

and family are asking these questions, kind of like, what took so long? What was the delay? And what have you done for me lately? I can't even imagine what those 10 days must have been like for her family, and really all the time since then. But especially the friend who's an eyewitness to what happened, who had a gun pointed in her face and her car stolen and her friend killed in front of her. So as her mom rightly alluded to, someone can get anywhere in the time that it took them to announce who the person of interest was. Yeah. And her friends and family have expressed intense frustration over that, not only because it took the cops 10 days before Oswaldo was even named as a suspect, but also that it took 10 minutes for them to get there while Tabitha was bleeding and dying. And

the family also feels betrayed by Oswaldo. Regina and Tabitha's friends have said how they trusted him and trusted him with Tabitha. And at the protest, Regina said that she knows that Oswaldo's arrest and conviction won't bring Tabitha back to her, but, quote, I need to do this. I'm going to fight until my last breath. I'm going to be here fighting for justice. Tabitha's friends and family are demanding Oswaldo turn himself in and are pleading with anyone who might be helping him or hiding him to come forward and do the right thing. Many of them have expressed how his arrest would take a weight off their shoulders, but particularly Regina's shoulders. And they think about all of Tabitha's fans and friends

and the Las Vegas community at large who want to see justice in this case. And Tabitha's family and friends have also spoken out about their desire to raise awareness of domestic violence killings in light of Tabitha's death and domestic violence in general, encouraging women to find a trusted person or resource to go to for help. As John mentioned, Tabitha was a poet and had a whole separate Instagram account that was dedicated to her poetry. I want to share one of her poems with all of you. This one is called Traditional. I don't believe you have to be strictly traditional. I believe in the beauty of trying new dishes and lifting your soul. You don you have to be strictly traditional. I believe in the beauty of trying new dishes and lifting your soul. You don't have to be society's normal. Don't fit into the norm

that's been bestowed upon. Fit into that short dress if it makes you feel long. Don't make yourself small so that others feel more comfortable picking out your flaws. Make noise even when they try to silence you. Speak up even when it's just you two. Teach them to respect you. And as John said, Tabitha had a Instagram that she was very active on. She posted all of her pictures from modeling and different events she worked on, traveling she did during her life. And one post that she made really stood out to me and I wanted to share it with everyone as well. She posted this on International Women's Day. So she writes, I just wanted to take the time to write out and say happy International Women's Day.

It's so important for women to stand up for other women. Female energy is beyond powerful that it makes certain people uncomfortable. Shout out to all the intellectual, smart, driven women who speak their minds and encourage other women to speak up and not stay quiet. I kid you not, I probably get the phrase, you're different than most girls. I've never had an intellectual conversation with other girls the way I have with you. As much as I take that as a compliment, I know there are so many girls like me or beyond me, women out of this world who are fighting to make a difference, and I don't want someone to put other girls down in order to make me feel smart. To be honest, many times men tend to focus more on our outer beauty than our beautiful minds. Beauty tends to distract a shallow heart. Shout out to men who can recognize female energy and want to take the time to undress

our minds rather than just our bodies. There is more to women than their bodies. You don't have to be modest in order to be respected, nor does wanting to be more modest make you less uplifting. Women need to be heard, not just looked at, is a quote I made and I stand for it. I know most of my Instagram is filled with pictures of myself and wanting to be heard, not just looked at, is a quote I made and I stand for it. I know most of my Instagram is filled with pictures of myself and wanting to be a model is based on image, but I'm more than that. I want to get to where I want to be, having a voice and making a mark in the world. So please never stop speaking up, even in a room filled with men. Never be afraid to speak your truth. We need more women feeling comfortable in their own skin and voice.

We need more women like you. So even though Tabitha is gone, with her words, her poems, she is continuing to inspire and encourage people. And I think that's a really beautiful thing. We've posted and will continue to post photos of Oswaldo along with his wanted poster from the FBI. We also mentioned that the FBI is offering a $10,000 reward for information leading to his arrest. So please share his photo and mention his name because all it

takes is for one person to recognize him to bring him in for this murder. Anyone with information should call Las Vegas Metro Police Homicide at 702-828-3521 or contact Crime Stoppers of Nevada at 702-385-5555. And we should also mention that he is considered to be armed and dangerous, and you should under no circumstances approach him or confront him yourself. Leave that to law enforcement. Let them do it. We'll share a link to the Justice for Tabitha Tozzi case in the show notes.

And we, and of course, our friends and family would appreciate if you would like the Facebook page, share the information about Tabitha's case. In the meantime, please check out our show notes on sinsandsurvivors.com and share the information about Tabitha's case and share the Most Wanted poster for Oswaldo. He is out there somewhere, and we will continue to share updates on this case, and hopefully we'll be able to tell you soon that he's been apprehended. Thanks again for listening and sharing, because what happens here happens everywhere. Thanks for listening. Visit sinspod.co slash subscribe for exclusive bonus content and to listen ad-free. Remember to like and follow us on Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, and Threads at Sins and Survivors. If you're enjoying the podcast, please leave us a review on your podcast platform of choice. You can contact us at questions at sinsandsurvivors.com. If you or someone you

know is affected by domestic violence or needs support, please reach out to local resources or the National Domestic Violence Hotline. A list of resources is available on our website, sinsandsurvivors.com. Sins and Survivors, a Las Vegas true crime podcast, is research written and produced by your hosts, Sean and John. The information shared in this podcast is accurate at the time of recording. If you have questions, concerns, or corrections, please email us. Links to source material for this episode can be found on our website, sinsandsurvivors.com. The views and opinions expressed in this podcast are solely those of the podcast creators, hosts, and their guests.

All individuals are innocent until proven guilty. This content does not constitute legal advice. Listeners are encouraged to consult with legal professionals for guidance.