That February, 18 years ago, Cynthia Anjanette Cullins drove to Las Vegas to spend a week with her family.
It was a special occasion. She was turning 24.
But it wasn’t the typical joyous time for the exuberant woman who was usually the life of the party.
Cynthia was sullen, tired and stressed out. She was on the run from the law at the time.
Cynthia had escaped from the Silver Springs Conservation Camp, where she had been serving a four-year prison sentence on a drug conviction out of Las Vegas. Cynthia had been arrested four times on drug charges.
Cynthia had been working as an inmate firefighter at the minimum-security prison. It was a tough program and Cynthia had fled after she broke her arm, said her sister Tomika Messer, 35, of Las Vegas.
The work program was about 25 miles east of Carson City, Nev. on Aug. 30, 1994. But by the following winter she was reconsidering her life on the run.
“She was tired of that life,” Messer said. “She was ready to turn herself in so she could do right by her kids.”
At the time Cynthia had an 8-year-old daughter and two sons, ages 3 and 1.
That was the last time Messer would see her sister alive.
Cynthia was hiding out in Denver at the time. She didn’t have the best of company.
Cynthia spent a lot of time with a member of the south-central Los Angeles street gang called the 74 Hoover Criminals Gang.
Messer acknowledged that her older sister was likely selling drugs on the street.
Several times a week she spoke with her sister up until March. At one point, Cynthia called from Kansas.
