Fallen hero
Shauna was a cocktail waitress, George was a firefighter – and the destination for murder was Vegas.
When cocktail waitress Shauna Tiaffay returned in the early hours of the morning to her apartment in Las Vegas after a long shift at a casino, she was ready to kick off her shoes and climb into bed.
Turning the key in the lock, Shauna had no idea that someone was inside, hiding in her closet waiting for the perfect moment to pounce on her.
Once Shauna was inside, her assailant launched a long terrifying attack.
As Shauna desperately tried to defend herself against the relentless blows of a claw hammer, she begged for her life.
‘Why are you doing this?’ she cried out in despair. Shauna didn’t stand a chance. Prime suspect was her estranged husband George.
He’d didn’t want his marriage to be over and he certainly didn’t want the complications that divorce would bring.
But police had a problem. George had an alibi – and a noble one at that.
Pretty Shauna loved her job as a cocktail waitress in the prestigious Palms Hotel Casino, Las Vegas.
It was there she met and fell in love with handsome George Tiaffay.
They married in Hawaii and had a daughter together.
George was a highly regarded firefighter, and
Shauna juggled work with being a devoted mum with a smile for everyone.
But by 2012, things between the picture-perfect couple were hugely strained.
Shauna told friends that George could be controlling.
She also mentioned a homeless man he’d paid to do odd-jobs around the house.
She called him ‘creepy.’ Others might have argued it was a generous thing to do.
Shauna moved out of the family home and got her own apartment, sharing custody of their little girl with George.
She was sure her marriage was over.
In early September, Shauna’s apartment was broken into and her wedding ring was taken. She was left shaken.
Three weeks later, in the early hours of September 29, 2012, Shauna was captured on casino CCTV clocking out of work at precisely 3.01am.
Their daughter, then eight, was staying with her grandmother.
Shauna drove the
30 minutes home and entered her through the garage… where someone lay in wait.
A man then suddenly attacked Shauna with a hammer.
As she desperately tried to defend herself, her fingers were broken. The man didn’t stop until Shauna was dead. She was 46.
The next morning, George picked up his daughter and headed to Shauna’s home.
They walked in and discovered Shauna’s deceased body. George quickly dialled 911. ‘I think I need to report a break-in and a murder,’ he stammered. As an estranged partner, George was the prime suspect, but when interviewed by police, he had an iron clad alibi.
He’d been on a 24-hour shift at the fire station he worked at. While police investigated, Vegas shift workers were terrified for their safety. Would a random killer be waiting for them when they got home?
Then the police had a tip off from a man who said a homeless friend he knew by his nickname ‘Greyhound’ had told him he’d killed a woman with a hammer – slamming it so hard it had broken.
He reported it to the police. ‘Greyhound’ was an ex-con called Noel Stevens who lived on the outskirts of the city in a tent.
When police took him into custody, they searched the area near the tent and found a pair of his trousers – it was covered in Shauna’s blood.
There was also a barcode that matched one for a hammer.
At the station Noel confessed to killing Shauna.
On his mobile phone was a contact called George.
When asked who that was, he had a game-changing reply. ‘That’s my friend the firefighter.’ Noel Stevens was the man George Tiaffay had befriended – the man Shauna had been wary off.
Records showed the pair had phoned each other constantly leading up to the murder.
It soon became clear that Noel was in awe of George and George had taken advantage of that to persuade him to kill his wife.
Police found CCTV of Noel and
He was waiting for her in the closet
George shopping together for hammers, and Noel revealed where he’d buried the murder weapon shortly after the killing.
It was broken from the force he’d used.
When police closed in on George just nine days after the murder, he fled in his car and smashed it headon into a barrier.
It looked like a suicide attempt – but it failed.
George was arrested at the hospital and charged. So was Noel.
In 2013, Noel pleaded guilty to killing Shauna and agreed to testify against George in return for avoiding the death penalty.
George had tried to commit the perfect crime, but he was still protesting his upmost innocence.
Noel wasn’t the best witness with his criminal history, drinking addiction and potential mental health problems.
George was an all-american boy – a firefighter.
Who would the jury truly believe?
At the trial in 2015, George’s defence was very simple.
Noel had confessed to killing Shauna.
But the prosecution said that George had ordered the hit.
He had called Noel 87 times in September – five times on the night before the murder. George had paid him $600 and promised a lot more to kill his wife, and had even given him a key to get into the apartment. Noel admitted breaking into Shauna’s home three weeks before he killed her. When asked who had told him to make it look like a robbery, he replied; ‘George did.’ Noel then described killing Shauna. ‘I hit her in the head,’ he said. When asked; ‘Who told you to kill Shauna?’ He replied; ‘George.’ When cross-examined, Noel admitted to regularly hearing voices and hallucinating.
Had he made it all up?
But one thing no one could dispute was the footage of George and Noel out shopping.
The jury found George, then 43, guilty of first-degree murder and conspiracy to commit murder. He showed no emotion.
At the sentencing, Shauna’s sister Paula described the emptiness she felt and her sadness that her daughter would grow up without her.
George’s family pleaded for mercy and spoke of a hard-working man who risked his life.
But he was also a man who had planned the murder.
He also took his daughter into the house, knowing her mum was lying dead. George was sentenced to life without the possibility of parole.
Noel, 40, was given life with a minimum of 42 years.
George’s job was to save lives, but he chose to end Shauna’s and will now spend the rest of his behind bars.
George was meant to save lives, but he ended his wife’s
He took his young daughter inside