SANFORD (AP) – A Sanford woman murdered in a Las Vegas Strip hotel was warned by co-workers against making the trip with her New Hampshire boyfriend, who killed her before taking his own life.

Larry Joyce, 34, of Laconia, N.H., jumped to his death from the Hoover Dam early Tuesday after calling 911 and telling dispatchers he had killed Rebecca Roux, 27.

Those at Cousins Home Lending where Roux was a loan officer knew the relationship was troubled and advised her not to make the trip, said Rob Raymond, sales manager. Roux and Joyce had dated for about four or five months, he said.

“We told her not to go,” he told the Journal Tribune of Biddeford.

Raymond said Joyce called to tell Roux’s co-workers that he and Roux had broken up and that she was returning home, Raymond said.

After the 911 call, security officials found Roux’s body in a room at the Treasure Island hotel-casino. The victim was beaten to death, though the time of death was not immediately known, according to the Clark County Coroner’s Office.

A short time later, Hoover Dam police noticed a man sitting outside his car atop the dam wall 30 miles east of Las Vegas.

Joyce tried to get police to shoot him and was shot with a Taser before he jumped 700 feet to his death, Metro Police Capt. Tom Lozich said.

“Those are very difficult situations for officers to be in,” Lozich said. “Not only are we engaging someone who is suicidal, but we are also engaging someone who is a suspect in a homicide,” Lozich told the Las Vegas Sun.

Joyce was a troubled man, according to his 61-year-old father, also named Lawrence Joyce, in Laconia. He declined to elaborate.

“He had tons of friends who loved him. This is a terrible tragedy for two families. I have no further comment than that,” he said.

But apparently there was another side to Joyce.

Laconia police said that since 1989 Joyce had been arrested for sexual assault, kidnapping and failure to register as a sex offfender.

For the past two years Joyce had worked in Laconia for the Schaefer Mortgage Corp. of Londonderry, N.H., company president Ken Schaefer said. “I wouldn’t have expected anything like this,” Schaefer said.

Roux was raised in Sanford and loved the outdoors, Raymond said. She was outgoing and rose to the rank of loan officer.

Customer service surveys indicated her clients adored her, Raymond said.

Before going to work for Cousins Home Lending, Roux worked as a teller at the Sanford Institution for Savings, where personnel manager Kathleen MacDonald described her as personable and full of life.

MacDonald said Roux had tried some modeling and used to bring in her portfolio to show her co-workers. “She was a beautiful girl. She’d take your breath away,” MacDonald said.

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