Two men walk into a Lowe's hardware store and buy two hammers. While it looks inconspicuous, they are plotting a murder.This grainy CCTV footage reveals the moment George Tiaffay and Noel 'Greyhound' Stevens bought the weapon that would later be used to bludgeon Tiaffay's wife Shauna to death.Fireman Tiaffay, 43, was at work when his wife was brutally killed. He and their eight-year-old daughter Maddie found her body the next day when they stopped by her Las Vegas apartment.The beautiful cocktail waitress had been viciously beaten over the head and her fingers were broken from her vain attempts to defend herself in her final moments. Chilling: CCTV footage shows murderer George Tiaffay (right) and homeless hitman Noel Stevens (left) buying two hammers, one of which was later used to murder Shauna Tiaffay Unhappy couple: While they handsome couple seemed fine on the surface, underneath their marriage was falling apart at the time of the killing Mrs Tiaffay, 46, had arrived home in the early hours after a long shift in September 2012 and was last seen leaving work at around 3am.
She had separated from George Tiaffay - a West Point graduate who served in the Army Corps of Engineers - but they were trying to get their marriage back on track.Police initially suspected and interviewed Tiaffay of killing Shauna, but with a solid alibi and no hard evidence - had he really murdered her?Investigators' first clue came from an unlikely source in William Pennix - a maintenance man in Vegas known as Big Will.He told CBS' 48 Hours that Stevens - a homeless man who was friends with Tiaffay - boasted to him that he had murdered a woman with a hammer.Big Will was not someone to turn a friend into police, but knew he had no choice. He looked out on the news for any reports of a murder involving a hammer, and spotted the hunt for Shauna Tiaffay's killer. Stevens was paid $600 to murder Shauna Tiaffay and hit her with such ferocity that the hammer snapped Beautiful: Shauna Tiaffay loved her job and her family, and was devastated to see it falling apart in front of her
He led police officers to a grocery store Stevens often visited, and by coincidence they found him there.Officers arrested him for possessing drugs and took him in for questioning, but he denied any knowledge of the murder.Homicide detective Dan Long said of Stevens' denial: '"I have nothing to do with it, it's not me. You have the wrong guy,'' He tells us that he does live in the desert. He has a tent.'Knowing they had a slim window of opportunity, with Stevens detained, Long led a group of investigators and a search helicopter eight miles out from the Las Vegas strip until they eventually found the campsite Stevens stayed at. And there, under a shrub, lied a bloody pair of underwear. Tests on the scene revealed that blood to be Shauna Tiaffay's.Returning to Stevens, Detective Terri Miller explained their next move. She said: 'We find a guy by the name of George in his cell phone. And when we ask him, "Who's George?" He says, "That's my friend the firefighter".'It did not take long for officers to find that Stevens and George Tiaffay had shared 87 phone calls during the month before Shauna's murder.
Tiaffay testified against Stevens as part of a plea deal, with a jury believing that the fireman had hired him to kill his cocktail waitress wife The Tiaffays had been married for a few years and had a daughter together, Maddie, before the murderThe men were unusually close, with suggestions Tiaffay was manipulating mentally unstable Stevens.Big Will said Tiaffay gave Stevens just $600 to murder the cocktail waitress, but promised to pay him more.'He said, "Well, uh, he gave me a key to get in this lady's house and I murdered her." And my heart dropped. And I said, "What?" I said, "What you just signed yourself a death warrant! You don't know if this man is gonna try to kill you or what."'The link between the two murderers was finally revealed by another clue at the campsite - a hammer.Cops found that the hammer - which snapped during the ferocious attack - had a bar code matching with hammers sold at Lowe's hardware store.After analyzing hundreds of hours of CCTV, they found chilling footage of the Tiaffay and Stevens smiling as they perused the aisles of the store, pushing a trolley around before picking up and buying two hammers.'We have our definite connection between Noel and George,' Detective Long said.
'Commit the murder and then do away with Noel. If he can get that done in the right way, he's gonna commit the perfect crime.' Detectives Dan Long and Terri Miller worked tirelessly to crack the case, which saw them find the murder weapon in a remote campsite eight miles from the Las Vegas strip Source: William Pennix - known as Big Will - called the police after Stevens admitted he had bludgeoned a woman to deathJust before they arrested the husband, realizing police were hot on his tail, he drove his car at 90mph into a barrier. There were no skid marks and it is believed that this was a failed suicide attempt.Tiaffay survived thanks to his seat belt and was charged with murder and conspiracy in hospital. As part of a plea deal so Stevens would not face the death penalty, he agreed to testify against Tiaffay. His and Big Will's fragile testimony was enough to convince a jury that Tiaffay was guilty of murder, and had hired Stevens to kill his wife.The fireman was jailed for life with no chance of parole.
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