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Police warned Lee Danae Laursen the pimps and would-be rappers she associated with were dangerous.
Some detectives offered her money so she could return home to Utah.
But Laur-sen - a former child care worker from Payson caught up in prostitution and a deadly feud in the rap music world - ignored their advice and declined their cash.
Less than three months later, the 21-year-old was found dead in the northern California town of Fairfield, shot twice in the head.
Fairfield police Sgt. Dan Pitcher said detectives have at least two theories for why Laursen was killed: her involvement with budding rappers or her work as a prostitute.
If she was killed for her connections to the music world, police say, it would make Laursen the fourth homicide victim in a series of crimes that spans three states.
"I don't know if she was brainwashed or what. But the lifestyle she ended up involved in was so far removed from the lifestyle she lived in Utah," said Todd Hendrix, a Las Vegas Metropolitan police detective investigating two homicides that may be linked to Laursen's.
Among the unanswered questions is how Laursen - whom friends and family called by her middle name and who used the name "Alana" while working as a call girl - became involved. Her family did not wish to discuss the case with The Salt Lake Tribune.
Joyce Hasting, president of Milestone Learning Center Inc., a Provo day-care center, said Laursen worked there for about two years until about March 2004. Laursen worked with school-age children before and after school, helping them with homework and leading them in art classes and other activities.
"She had a very good rapport with the children, especially with those that had hard times or maybe would be considered difficult children," Hasting said. "She made them feel like they could talk to her."
When Laursen left Milestone, she said she was moving, but wasn't sure where to, Hasting said.
Laursen's father, Pilcher said, told investigators his daughter went to California with a man she met in a club in Salt Lake City. Police say that man is Jason Mathis, who is in jail on double-murder charges in Las Vegas.
Police are investigating whether the Las Vegas murders were connected to the death last year of Andre "Mac Dre" Hicks.
Hicks had a history of violence. In 1992, police caught him preparing to rob a bank in Fresno, Calif., according to a story in the San Francisco Chronicle. His family claimed his music and his life - centered in the Bay Area - turned to the straight and narrow and that he was helping youths avoid violence.
Then in the early hours of Nov. 1, 2004, Hicks and a friend left a party in Kansas City, Mo., and were riding in a van on a freeway when another vehicle approached and started shooting. A bullet pierced the van, striking and killing Hicks.
Kansas City police Detective Everett Babcock said his theory is that Hicks was killed over money. The detective would not elaborate.
Rumors in the rap world said another rapper, Anthony "Fat Tone" Watkins, of Kansas City, was responsible for Hicks' death, though Babcock said: "We don't believe he had any connection to it. We never did."
Babcock said he has a pretty good idea who is responsible for the murder, but no one has been arrested. The detective said the investigation has been slowed by people in the rap world trying to be part of the case because of its connection to a murdered rapper. In the realm of rap, a murdered figure can gain folklore-like status.
Many witnesses have come forward with false information they concocted or heard as gossip, Babcock said.
"We've had people walk in off the street and give information that they basically know everything but everything they say is inconsistent with the investigation."
In one case, Babcock received a tip that a man in jail, an aspiring rapper, had something to do with Hicks' death. Babcock visited the inmate and determined he had nothing to do with the crime, but the inmate asked the detective not to tell anyone he wasn't guilty because it would hurt his rap career.
On April 25, Laursen's father contacted Payson police, saying his daughter was being held against her will in Las Vegas and being forced to work as a prostitute. A police report states Laursen told her father the suspects had an AK-47 machine gun with them and one of the suspects was a man named Jason Mathis.
The next day, according to the report, the father called Payson police again, stating he had his daughter and was heading back to Payson.
Back in Utah, Laursen dropped in on Milestone to say hello to her old co-workers, Hasting said. Laursen looked good and seemed happy.
"She said she really enjoyed California," Hasting said. Laursen said, however, that she wasn't working.
Laursen then left Utah again.
In May, Watkins and another man, Jermaine Akins, a fugitive from federal charges related to cocaine distribution, were found shot to death in a car parked in a cul-de-sac of a neighborhood under construction in Las Vegas. Hendrix said the two were shot numerous times with an AK-47 in a neighborhood where Mathis lived.
Mathis, 26, confessed the murders over the telephone to the mother of his baby, Hendrix said. Mathis and the man suspected of driving Watkins and Atkins to the cul de sac, Andre "Mac Minister" Dow, 34, were aspiring rappers or rap promoters, and might have killed the pair in retaliation for Hicks' murder, Hendrix said.
A white Pontiac Sunfire convertible belonging to Laursen was reportedly seen frequently at Mathis' home, and police began looking for her.
A few days later, her car was found burned in Vallejo, Calif.
Laursen reported the car stolen to Las Vegas police a week later on June 1, Hendrix said.
Las Vegas police called Laursen's father in Payson to seek his help. The father initially was cooperative, Hendrix said, but then stopped. The father said something to the effect of, "I don't want to get my daughter in trouble," Hendrix said.
Later, when a grand jury met to consider charges in the case, Laursen's father didn't return the prosecutor's phone calls, Hendrix said.
"I think he was just torn between helping us and helping his daughter," Hendrix said. "However, I feel that maybe if he had done more to help us, maybe she would have gotten out of this situation before [she was killed]."
Police caught up to Laursen July 15 in San Francisco, and Hendrix's partner and a sergeant went there to interview her. Laursen would not answer questions and was defiant, Hendrix said. Then investigators offered to pay for Laursen's return to Utah.
"It was explained to her that she could be in danger and the situation she was in could result in harm coming to her, and she didn't want to hear it," Hendrix said.
On Nov. 2, a grand jury in Las Vegas charged Mathis and Dow with two counts of murder with a deadly weapon and two counts of conspiracy to commit murder for the killings of Watkins and Akins. Mathis is in jail awaiting trial. Dow remains at large.
About 9:30 p.m. on Nov. 4, Laursen's neighbors in Fairfield reported hearing four or five gunshots, and a jogger saw a dark sport utility vehicle drive away. The jogger ran to the area where he heard the shots and found Laursen in a gutter in front of an unoccupied home, Pilcher said.
There is information Laursen might have been with Dow a few hours before she died, Pilcher said, and Fairfield police consider him a person of interest in her death.
Investigators found Laursen's cell phone and were fielding calls from people asking for "Alana," the name she posted in an escort advertisement on the Internet.
Anyone with information about Laursen's death or Dow's whereabouts can call the Fairfield Police Department at 707-428-7300.