Las Vegas NowI-Team: Cold Case - The Death of an Elvis Impersonator

I-Team: Cold Case - The Death of an Elvis Impersonator

LAS VEGAS, Nv -- Metro cold case detectives are asking for your help in solving a double murder that has baffled police for 16 years.

It is a crime with Las Vegas flavor. A well-known Elvis tribute artist and his beauty queen girlfriend were shot and killed in what looked like a mob-style hit. Detectives have pursued several theories but have crossed them off one by one.

Dana MacKay was one of the best in the business -- a king among Elvi. So like the original, he was the first to play Elvis in the Legends in Concert show and convincing enough to portray The King in a factual documentary.

“He was phenomenal. He looked like him naturally. He sounded like him naturally. And he loved the music,” said MacKay’s best friend Danny Koker.

These days, Koker owns a custom car and motorcycle shop, but longtime locals might remember him as horror movie host Count Cool Rider, who sometimes invited his pal to join him on air. His memories of MacKay haunt The Count. “It drives me crazy. It is not fair. Justice has not been served,” he said.

Koker remembers the day in October of 1993 when he learned about the murders of MacKay and his longtime girlfriend Mary Huffman, a beauty pageant winner. The slayings occurred just inside their sprawling home, which MacKay called mini-Graceland.

Huffman entered the home and was executed just inside the doorway. MacKay followed later and someone was still inside. He put up a fight before he died. Detectives theorized the couple must have interrupted a burglary, though the only thing taken was a stack of paperwork. “There is nothing valuable to a burglar about paper. You can't go down to the pawnshop and sell it. So it's kind of a mystery to me why a burglar would bust into a house, murder two people, and take a file,” said Koker.

When burglary was ruled out, detectives then guessed it must have been a drug deal gone bad -- that MacKay was killed on orders from drug traffickers, even though no drugs were ever found in the house, in the bodies of victims, or anywhere else.

“I remember being woken up in the middle of the night by the sound of my grandmother sobbing and it was this cry that I can't even explain to you. It was so terrible. Anybody who has heard a mother mourn for her child knows what I'm talking about,” said MacKay’s daughter Misty Vargas.

Misty was a youngster when her father was murdered, but she is consumed by the case. She and Koker both suspect the slayings had something to do with MacKay's main business, a landscaping operation. At the time of his death, MacKay was involved in a brutal legal dispute over the company.

“He told my uncle that his life had been threatened involving his business. And the exact words of the suspect, you would say, is ‘I will see you dead before we get to court,’ and sure enough,” she said.

MacKay's partner in the landscaping business was Tim Stonestreet, today a prominent builder of exclusive homes. In 1993, as the two sought to dissolve their partnership a judge ordered a freeze on all assets, including heavy equipment. But the equipment was stolen.

Koker says MacKay tracked down the people who bought it and had paperwork to prove who had sold it -- papers he kept in file that was stolen. “This file was thick. We talked about it and he said, ‘First thing Monday morning, I'm going to go down to court and get this handled.’ That was the last conversation I ever had with Dana,” he said.

At Koker's urging, reporters have tried to ask Stonestreet about MacKay, but he's always said "no comment." Police have never named him as a suspect.

Stonestreet was in Aruba when the murders occurred. His current attorney, John Spilotro, said “He (Stonestreet) was cleared and if you guys are saying anything otherwise, you can deal with the legal ramifications down the road. Cops and (others) should be looking at the people (MacKay) was dealing drugs with.”

“I've seen no indication there was drug involvement at all,” said Metro Homicide Lt. Lew Roberts.

Lt. Roberts says attorney Spilotro's drug theory was discounted long ago. Like Koker and Vargas, Roberts thinks the case can be solved. He confirmed that detectives have pursued a promising lead -- they've interviewed a former drug dealer now serving a life term for financing a 1996 murder for hire scheme. It's not clear what he told police about MacKay's death or how much he can be trusted.

“Everybody has an angle. Everybody has something they want,” said Roberts.

That's certainly true for Vargas and Koker.

“I would just like to say to the person responsible for this, and I do not mean the gunman, I mean the person who made this happen, I want that person to know that I am not going to rest. I want justice for my family,” said Vargas.

“I have no doubt in my mind -- beyond a shadow of a doubt. I am positive who had this done,” said Koker.

McKay's daughter, Misty Vargas, wants to remind the public there is a $25,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the people who are responsible. Cold case detectives say what they need most is information on a possible motive for the slayings. They do believe a break in the case might be near.