Fil-Am ex-chef stabs wife to death in Vegas

Richard Magdayo Dahan

LAS VEGAS—A Filipino-American former chef is in police custody after stabbing and killing his wife, a certified nurse assistant, in their Las Vegas apartment after she told him she wanted a divorce.

Richard Magdayo Dahan said he killed his wife on Friday using two knives and a meat cleaver before showering, driving to a police station and turning himself in, according to a Metro Police report.

An unrepentant Dahan, 40, said he would do it all over again given the chance.

Dahan and his wife, Daisy, 28, met in the Philippines and lived together for seven months before getting married in October 2011.

According to the police report, trouble started when the couple moved to the United States where Dahan had two children with an ex-girlfriend.

A recent recipient of a kidney transplant, Dahan had also lost his job as a chef at a Strip resort.

Daisy Dahan had become jealous of Richard’s continued relationship with the mother of his children and would be angry whenever he gave money to the children.

As the relationship deteriorated, Daisy started asking for a divorce. But Dahan said divorce was unacceptable.

According to the three-page police report, the situation came to a head on Friday after lunch.

The Las Vegas Sun reported that 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’s hair, Dahan told police he took a small meat cleaver and struck his wife several time on the top of her head. Then, grabbing a fillet knife, he stabbed Daisy in the abdomen and cut her from the corner of her mouth because she continued to make noises.

Dahan told police he walked into his bedroom and began pacing, trying to determine what to 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, 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., Dahan walked into the building and announced to a Metro support technician, “I stabbed my wife to death.”

The killing shocked the Filipino-American community here, particularly friends of Daisy Dahan.

She was not working on her divorce papers but her immigration status, said a friend, who did not want to disclose her name.

“Amidst her suffering she didn’t even tell us,” another anonymous friend said. “That’s why I am, we are just shocked. We are devastated by the whole thing. You know, for me, we could’ve done something more.”

Magdayo Dahan will face the Clark County District on Wednesday for murder with deadly weapons.