Vegas murder solved 20 years after man strangled with phone cord

Authorities have finally solved the murder of a Las Vegas man who was strangled to death with a telephone cord inide his home more than 20 years ago, thanks to modern DNA testing. 

The case dates back to Dec. 29, 2005, when an apartment manager reported a foul smell emanating from a Las Vegas property. First responders discovered the body of Daniel Zeisler inside one of the apartments, according to the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department. At the time, the body was already moderately decomposed. 

Detectives determined that Zeisler had died from strangulation with a phone cord, and that his 1997 Dodge Neon was missing along with the keys to his home. Although the car was found abandoned the following January in Memphis, Tennessee, there wasn’t enough evidence to point definitively to a potential suspect. 

Once they found the vehicle and processed it for evidence, detectives recovered a DNA profile that may have been linked to the person responsible for Zeisler’s murder, Las Vegas police said. But their discovery didn’t produce a match when the sample was run through a forensic database, said Othram, Inc., the laboratory that ultimately performed the tests that led to a breakthrough in this case.

That came in September 2024, when investigators submitted the DNA profile to the lab for an analysis. The lab was able to trace that sample to a relative of the suspect in Zeisler’s murder, who detectives also believe was seen in surveillance footage shortly after the killing, having used Zeisler’s car to drive to a store and his bank card to make a purchase there.

The potential murder suspect, who was not publicly named, died in 2020, said Othram. Though an arrest was not possible, the lab still characterized the person’s identification as “a significant breakthrough in a case that remained unsolved for more than 20 years, demonstrating the impact of leveraging the latest DNA technology for resolving cold case homicides.”

Las Vegas police detective Tate Sanborn, who helped revive the investigation into Zeisler’s murder, said in a 2024 podcast that he pushed for detectives to continue pursuing it.

“The fact that it hasn’t been solved or looked at in the last approximately 20 years, that’s a little unique,” said Sanborn. “When I looked at it initially and saw the evidence that we had, I felt like the case needed to be fired back up. And that there’s great potential for somebody out there to have information that will help solve this case.”