Truth in the flames: Las Vegas fire sets off attempted murder investigation

By Lauren Martinez

Click here for updates on this story

    LAS VEGAS (KVVU) — A fire investigations captain brought criminal charges to a case after collecting a single piece of evidence that turned a woman’s status of victim into suspect.

Jamie Sypniewicz wears many hats. Aside from being a mom, she’s the fire investigations captain and bomb technician for Las Vegas Fire and Rescue.

Growing up, she credits a fourth grade teacher telling her she couldn’t be a “fireman” while her mother told her the opposite, which ultimately inspired her to break the stereotype.

“The ladder that I took was push by people telling me that I can’t. And if you say that I can’t then I definitely will,” Sypniewicz said.

Sypniewicz has completed the fire academy, police academy and a hazardous device school located in Huntsville, Alabama, the only school in the country that certifies bomb technicians.

“I was the 52nd female in the nation as a bomb tech. So we’re moving up and we’re getting more women in the profession but it still gives you an idea of how the percentage is so low,” Sypniewicz said.

As a fire investigator, she described the process of the job as doing an autopsy to a house after a fire is out.

“Finding those clues, figuring out how it all started and then coming up with that conclusion. And in investigations you can do as little or as much as you like and that’s what makes the difference between a good and bad investigator,” Sypniewicz said.

On Sunday, May 30, Las Vegas police said dispatch received a 911 call from a woman inside a two-story apartment building on Bonanza Street. The woman stated her unit was on fire, she was unable to walk and she believed she was dying.

The police report said when crews from Las Vegas Fire and Rescue arrived to the scene, a woman, Erica Stanisavljevic, was found with deep lacerations to her arms. She told firefighters her mother was still inside and unable to exit.

According to the police report, her mother was morbidly obese, weighing approximately 500 pounds. Sypniewicz, said it took around eight firefighters to carry her out.

Stanisavljevic and her mother were transported to University Medical Center. Her mother was unconscious and received third degree burns to her face and right arm.

Meanwhile, once the fire is out, Sypniewicz job begins. She walked around the complex to look over the scene.

“You basically walk the perimeter and you’re just looking for either fire patterns or clues, and I happened to find a knife that had blood on it, and so I collected the knife just thinking this could potentially be part of our issue, or not,” Sypniewicz said.

The knife was found in the rubble near the front of the apartment that was located on the first floor.

“In the rocks right here, buried, about a six-inch switch blade that had copious amounts of blood on it,” Sypniewicz said.

Originally the fire was listed as having an undetermined cause, because they lacked any evidence it was arson. According to the police report, “LVMPD Crime Scene Analysts were not requested to photograph or process the scene or impound the bloody knife into evidence.”

On June 1, an unidentified source contacted police to say Stanisavljevic, the bedridden woman’s daughter, started the fire. The source said she stabbed her boyfriend in the back right shoulder, grabbed a towel, lit it on fire and threw it at him. The source went onto say she began throwing varnish from a can repeatedly trying to light him on fire.

After authorities had received word this fire could stem from a domestic dispute, the knife Sypniewicz collected was sent to a DNA lab.

“It turned out that the victim was our suspect,” Sypniewicz said.

Stanisavljevic originally told investigators she was asleep during the fire but later changed her story. Through the investigation, authorities heard from nearby neighbors who saw her boyfriend. He was able to escape but never located by authorities.

During the investigation a caregiver for the bedridden woman was interviewed. Two weeks before the fire, the caregiver told police she spoke with the bedridden woman who said she’s worried her daughter was hearing voices and paranoid.

Fortunately authorities had the knife as evidence.

“Luckily without that, we would not have any of these charges today,” Sypniewicz said.

Stanisavljevic was arrested on a list of criminal charges. The charges include attempted murder with use of a deadly weapon, battery with use of a deadly weapon, abuse of an older or vulnerable person, four counts of animal cruelty and first degree arson.

In the arrest report, it was noted four pets died in the fire, including a service dog named Bruno. The animal cruelty charge stated the willful or malicious torture of animals since Stanisavljevic knew they were inside the apartment.

The case goes to trial in December.

On Nov. 10, Sypniewicz and other members of the LVFR that responded to that fire, received unit citation awards for their rescue efforts, and the investigation that led to felony criminal charges.

“It feels great. I mean that’s why I’m here. I’m here to make a difference. I’m here to serve the people that are guilty,” Sypniewicz said.

When she’s not in uniform, Sypniewicz goes home to her 13-year-old twins. She said it’s hard to maintain a work-life balance.

“My job isn’t 9 to 5, so it doesn’t end. It’s not something you can just put away and you know you’re off the clock so these calls they follow me home. I work on it on my weekends because it’s time sensitive,” Sypniewicz.

She credits self care and reaching out for mental support when she needs it. Her 21 years in the fire service has felt like a dream.

“Every day I get to come into work and make a change,” Sypniewicz said.

She said she hopes to see more women in her position.

“Our job is difficult physically, we’re obviously not as strong as men, but mentally we are just as capable. And a lot of this job is not strength, you know it’s the tenacity. And it’s just the mindset of being a good leader,” Sypniewicz said.

Please note: This content carries a strict local market embargo. If you share the same market as the contributor of this article, you may not use it on any platform.