While his classmates graduated, Meridian student sat in jail, accused in Vegas killing

An 18-year-old Idaho resident could have been a graduate of Meridian’s Owyhee High School last weekend. Instead, he was being held in a Las Vegas jail on a murder charge.

Police officers found a woman dead with multiple stab wounds in a dumpster enclosure in the 9000 block of West Sahara Avenue at 7:35 a.m. April 29, the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department said in a news release. The scene had a lot of blood, including bloody drag marks near the dumpster, the arrest report said.

The Clark County coroner identified the victim as Gina Broome, 60, and said she died by homicide from a dozen sharp-force injuries to the front and back of her upper body.

Broome was last seen alive when surveillance video showed her pushing a cart in the area at 3:02 p.m. April 27, according to the arrest report.

An hour later, Lincoln Boe was seen on camera parking a Toyota Corrolla with Idaho license plates behind the business at that address and throwing things into the dumpster, before he entered the business and asked whether the cameras out back worked, the arrest report said.

An employee then took Boe into the alley and pointed out the cameras.

“The suspect then walked down the loading dock and appeared excited and does a little dance,” the arrest report stated.

Boe was next seen on camera standing in the same spot where the victim was killed, looking “tired, possibly confused,” according to police.

When police looked up the Idaho license plate number, they found that Boe’s family had filed a missing persons report in April. They were able to locate the car May 2 and said Boe was attempting to sleep in it.

Police took Boe into custody and began questioning him about the woman’s death. His shoes were an “exact match” to a bloody footprint found at the scene of the crime, according to the arrest report.

Police said that at first, Boe denied killing Broome and repeatedly responded to questioning by saying he “didn’t remember.”

Boe eventually said he had given Broome money to buy cigarettes, but she became angry when he asked her for one, according to police. Boe said she was “tweaking out” and clawed at him even though he told her to “back off” several times, police said.

The arrest report said that Boe then admitted he stabbed the woman with a large knife he was wearing around his waist, and hid her body. He told police that he threw the knife in the dumpster, but officers said they later found it under a seat in his car, according to the report.

Police pointed out in the interview that Broome weighed only 110 pounds and had a broken foot. Boe is 6-foot-3 and weighs 170 pounds, according to arrest documents.

“Lincoln said that he should have called the cops and not played it off thinking that he could get out of this,” the arrest report said. “Lincoln was later asked why he didn’t kick her away if she was coming at him. He said it was because he has weak legs.”

Law enforcement booked Boe into the Clark County Detention Center on open murder with a deadly weapon — which is Nevada state law terminology — and he is being held there.

As for his departure from the Treasure Valley, the arrest report said Boe told police that his “life was structured at home” so he had gone to Las Vegas to “get away and have some freedom.”

Owyhee High School held its graduation ceremony Saturday at ExtraMile Arena on the campus of Boise State University.