Wife’s insistence on divorce preceded horrific stabbing, husband’s confession, police report says

Published Mon, Jan 13, 2014 (11:45 a.m.)

Updated Mon, Jan 13, 2014 (1:21 p.m.)

Click to enlarge photo

Richard Magdayo Dahan

Camden Vintage Apartments

Richard Magdayo Dahan said he grew so enraged Friday when his wife again told him she wanted a divorce, he killed her using two knives and a meat cleaver before showering, driving to a police station and turning himself in, according to Metro Police arrest report.

The three-page report released today paints a horrific death scene at the couple’s Las Vegas apartment.

According to the report:

Daisy Dahan, 28, and Richard Dahan, 40, met in the Philippines and lived together for seven months before the two wed in October 2011.

His wife’s demand for a divorce, which had been raised several times since the couple left her native country and moved to Las Vegas, boiled over again at lunch Friday.

After Daisy Dahan’s latest divorce overture, Richard Dahan told police he went into the couple’s kitchen where his wife was sitting and stabbed her in the base of her neck with a serrated knife. His wife, while trying to grab the knife, yelled, “No, no, no, oh lord, no.”

Because the knife was entangled in Daisy Dahan’s hair, Richard Dahan told police he retrieved a small meat cleaver and struck his wife several time in the top of her head. Then, grabbing a fillet knife, Richard Dahan stabbed Daisy Dahan in the abdomen and cut her from the corner of her mouth because she continued to make noises.

Richard Dahan told police he walked into his bedroom and began pacing, trying to determine what he would do next. He got into the shower fully clothed, washed the clothes, removed them and finished his shower.

After dressing and without looking at his wife’s body, Richard Dahan got into his Toyota Tacoma pickup truck and made the 6.5-mile drive from the couple’s Camden Vintage Apartments home at 6500 Vegas Drive to Metro’s Northwest Area Command building at 9850 W. Cheyenne Ave. Shortly before 3 p.m., Richard Dahan walked into the building and announced to a Metro support technician, “I stabbed my wife to death.”

Richard Dahan laid out to police the events of the afternoon and the couple’s history.

Their relationship, he said, deteriorated after they moved to the United States, where Richard Dahan had two children by an ex-girlfriend. A recent recipient of a kidney transplant, Richard Dahan also had lost his job as a chef at a Strip resort. Daisy Dahan, her husband said, was jealous of Richard’s continued relationship with the mother of his children. She also expressed anger when he gave money to the children.

As the relationship deteriorated, Daisy Dahan started asking for a divorce. But Richard Dahan said divorce was unacceptable: His parents, after all, stayed married until his father died.

Daisy Dahan’s latest divorce overtures Friday, Richard Dahan said, left him feeling that killing his wife was the only thing left for him to do; he had no other options, he said.

And, Richard Dahan told police, if he was able to go back in time, he’d do it all again.

Richard Dahan, who suffered cuts to his hands, was placed under arrest, taken to University Medical Center for treatment and then jailed at the Clark County Detention Center without bond.

As of midmorning, the Clark County District Attorney's Office had not filed charges in the case.

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