Club Dead

"She left the club around 2:20 a.m. when we all left," dancer Kelly Dupree told TABC investigator Fortune.

"Many of her friends asked if she was okay to drive, and she said 'Yes, of course,' looking very sure. Cassy Hearn (another dancer) said she would call her in ten minutes to check up on her, but Esther didn't answer."

Ilana Kohn

Ilana Kohn

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More About

• Esther Saenz
• D.B. Cooper
• Stephen Fischer
• Trials
• Crime and Law

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According to Fortune's notes, Hearn said that "Saenz looked fine to her and that she couldn't tell that she was intoxicated or anything." But according to another dancer, one of the DJs believed she was drunk and tried to stop her from driving home.

But another DJ told Fortune that Saenz didn't even admit to drinking that night.

"When I looked at her," the DJ stated, "I was just like, 'Did you drink or anything tonight?' and she was like, 'No.' And I believed her, because she had been working here for about a month or two, and she wasn't known as one of those girls who deviated or drank, for that matter."

The former waitress, who asked not to be identified, told the Press that Saenz "hid it well...you couldn't tell when she was drunk." But even if Saenz hid it well, the former waitress and dancer said, there was always one subtle way to tell if a stripper had been drinking. Namely: "Nobody can dance sober."

Ultimately, Fortune believed that Saenz became intoxicated while at The Mansion, and TABC slapped the club with an administrative penalty. The commission moved to cancel the club's alcohol permit, which requires a court hearing — but the club has, of course, already been closed.

Fischer told the Press that he knows nothing about the circumstances of Saenz's death.

"I wasn't here that night," he said. "And the truth of the matter is, I know next to nothing about what happened, okay?...I wouldn't recognize this girl if I saw her today. I don't know who she is."

He says he didn't know Esther Saenz, he didn't know Elektra and he didn't know "Roxy," the name she originally chose to dance under. In fact, Fischer's office assistant claimed not to know anything about Saenz either. When the Press asked her which name Saenz danced under — Roxy or Elektra — the assistant reacted like it was possibly the dumbest question ever. The club has had 900 dancers come through its doors, she explained.

"A lot of them come and go — quickly,"she chuckled.

With that many girls coming and going, it's hard to remember one lone dancer. Even the one who died.

craig.malisow@houstonpress.com