Gary C. King - Dead of Night

Brianna Zunino Denison, nineteen, a beautiful and popular child psychology major who was in her sophomore year at Santa Barbara City College in Santa Barbara, California, had returned home to Reno, Nevada, for the 2007/2008 winter break. Brianna was so happy to be home for the holiday season, and she had been having a wonderful time, staying with her family at their Southwest Reno home. She had enjoyed spending time with her mother and brother, all her other family members, and visiting with her hometown friends from high school. Now she was making preparations to go back to California; she was due back at college in Santa Barbara on Monday, January 21. Brianna, who always made it a point to party responsibly, had made plans to go out for one last evening with her Reno friends on Saturday night, January 19, before heading back to school. They were going to attend some of the events associated with SWAT 72, an annual three-day college snowboarding event held at Squaw Valley USA, a popular ski resort located in California, forty-two miles from Reno, near North Lake Tahoe. SWAT, which stands for Summer Winter Action Tours, was a group that sponsored combined commercial snowboarding and concert events for college students by day, and concerts and parties by night in downtown Renos casino district. It was Briannas third year to attend the event, and she and several of her girlfriends had already gone to several of the activities associated with it that were being held in Reno. On that Saturday night, they were looking forward to going to a rap concert featuring Too $hort, which was also associated with the snowboarding groups events.

Brianna had always been very responsible and considerate of her family, and she had provided her mother, Bridgette Denison, a list of the parties that she and her friends would be attending. She also told her mother that since she would be out late and because there would be some drinking involved, she would be spending the night at the home of K.T. Hunter, nineteen, one of her girlfriends from high school. K.T. lived in a rental house that was located in the 1300 block of MacKay Court, near the University of Nevada, Reno (UNR), campus. Neither Brianna nor her mother had any reason to worrythey had known K.T. for several years, and the area of K.T.s rental home, which she shared with three other girls her age, seemed to be in a safe-enough area of town.

Earlier that day, everything had seemed perfectly normal for Brianna and her family. The day began with her doing some chores and lounging around, wearing sweatpants, in her mothers house. Later that day, she and her mother went out to the movies and saw 27 Dresses, a chick flick, which they both liked. At times during the day, however, Brianna began having second thoughts about the evening of music and parties that she had planned to spend with her friends. She was nursing a cold and was not sure that she was really feeling up to going out for a long, late evening of partying. Finally, as she began to feel better later in the day, she decided that she might as well go ahead and go out to the concert, after all. Her mother had reminded Brianna how much she liked the act they were going to see, and jokingly told her daughter that she should go out that night. After all, Bridgette said, Brianna could be sick tomorrow. After gathering up the clothes, shoes, and cosmetics she would take along with her, she went into her mothers bedroom around 8:45 P.M. and said good-bye. She gave her mother a hug and then left.

After meeting up with her friend, K.T., the two girls got dressed and went to the rap concert at the Livestock Event Center together and reportedly had a really great time. Brianna wanted to get close to the stage, so the two girls pushed their way up to the front. They had a lot of fun at the concert, and they both believed it would be an evening to remember. Sometime before 1:00 A.M. , the two girls met up with another friend, one of K.T.s roommates, Jessica Deal. The trio left the rap concert together on a shuttle bus, which dropped them off near downtown, at the Sands Regency Casino and Hotel.

Downtown Reno has been known for some time as a place that is not very safe at night. There are a lot of drug problems, homeless people, panhandlers, and worsemeth addicts and others willing and eager to rob people to feed their habits. The girls were all drinking, but Brianna had reportedly only had a couple of drinksshe never, ever drank to get drunk, her friends said later. The girls stayed in the better areas of the casinos, carefully managing to steer clear of downtown Renos safety issues. After Jessica left them to go back home to the house where she lived with K.T. and the other girls, Brianna and K.T. decided to have breakfast at Mels Diner, part of the same Mels Diner and Drive-in chain that was featured in the 1970s-era movie American Graffiti . The diner was located inside the Sands Regency, and they ate there before heading home to K.T.s MacKay Court home, getting a ride with their friend Ian McMenemy. Brianna was tired and sleepy, and she knew that she would probably have to spend some time calling or texting her boyfriend, Cameron Wilson Done, before she could get some sleep. Cameron was angry that she had gone out with her girlfriends, and Brianna wanted to talk to him about what she considered his unreasonable attitude.

Brianna had spent the previous night at K.T.s house, too. On that Friday night, she had slept in K.T.s bedroom, on a crowded bed with K.T. and Jessica. But after returning home from Mels Diner and not wanting to sleep again in that uncomfortable bed with her friends, Brianna had chosen to sleep on the living-room couch, instead. She had told her friends that she and her boyfriend had been fighting, and that she might want to call him or send him text messages. She felt it would be best if she slept on the couch so that she would not disturb them. It was a decision that would cost Brianna her life, some people later said as they reflected on the case.

Fear did not surface in anyones mind until approximately nine oclock the next morning, Sunday, January 20, when K.T. awoke and found that Brianna was not in the same place where she had last seen her at about four in the morning. Brianna had been on the living rooms leather sofa, where she had intended to text and sleep. K.T. had provided her with two blankets, a pillow, and a two-foot-tall stuffed teddy bear, which had been given to her by a friend, before saying good night. Brianna had wanted to use the stuffed bear to help prop up her pillow. K.T. had then gone to bed in her own room, which adjoined the room where Brianna was sleeping on the couch, and had told Brianna that if she needed anything just come in my room.

That morning K.T. and Jessica had gone into the kitchen and had begun making breakfast. At first, when K.T. failed to see Brianna on the couch, she just assumed that her friend had been unable to sleep and had probably gone to another bedroom upstairs. After all, Melissa Hamilton, the roommate who occupied the upstairs bedroom, was gone that weekend. A few minutes later, K.T. checked upstairs, knocked on the bedroom door, and said, Hey, time to get up. She received no reply and found that the door to the room was locked. She then quickly checked throughout the rest of the houseBrianna was nowhere to be found.

Although K.T. was alarmed when she discovered that Brianna was not anywhere inside the house, she became even more distressed when she noticed that Briannas belongings were still in the house right where she had left them when the girls came home at four oclock. Then, when she noticed a stain that looked like blood on the pillow that Brianna had usedtwo reddish blotches and some spatterK.T. became terrified. Something was terribly wrong, she knew. She began crying and decided that she should call Briannas mother.