Man brands his flatmate a 'disgusting slob' - and then is found dead days later
When police in Las Vegas responded to a report "of a foul-smelling odour" coming from a storage container, they eventually discovered Matthew Kelemen's rotting body
A man branded his flatmate "a disgusting slob" - and was discovered dead just days later
Police responding to a report "of a foul-smelling odour" coming from a storage container found Matthew Kelemen's decomposing corpse. It was wrapped in a sheet inside a locked plastic bin on a residential street in Downtown South, Las Vegas, last Tuesday.
It has since emerged the 56-year-old man, who was a freelance journalist, told his family his flatmate was a "disgusting slob" and he felt "really uneasy living there". The flatmate became prime suspect in the murder investigation in Las Vegas but he died days later in a high-speed police chase.
He topped speeds of 140mph before hitting spike strips, losing control, and being ejected from the car on a highway in Utah, a pursuit police say was unconnected to the murder probe.
Mr Kelemen, who spent most of his career at Las Vegas Magazine, likely died as a result of blunt force trauma, it is understood. His sister, Mikki Zaferatos told local media the Review-Journal investigators believe he was struck from behind with a hammer.
Speaking to the outlet, Ms Zaferatos said: "He'd only lived there for about six months, but he kept telling my brother what a strange guy [the flatmate] was. He said he was really uneasy living there. 'The guy was a disgusting slob,' were his words." Mr Kelemen, a keen musician, had told his sister he intended to "confront" the flatmate about his behaviour, an admission which helped identify the man as the prime murder suspect.
But the 63-year-old suspect died following the crash in Utah, police confirmed. Utah Highway Patrol did not give reporters further details about the chase, except stressing it was not linked to the murder probe in the neighbouring state.
Ms Zaferatos described her family's heartbreak as "horror movie stuff". She added: "I'm barely holding it together... I could not process what was going through my brain." She said police told her her brother's rotting body was found in what they described as a large crate. Ms Zaferatos believes this was one of the writer's amplifier boxes as he liked to play the guitar.
Mr Keleman had worked as a reporter in the Las Vegas area since he moved there in 2003, and was a staff writer at now-defunct 944 and City Life magazines. At the time of his death, he also freelanced for Las Vegas Weekly and Vegas magazine. His last pieces published before his death were pieces about Janet Jackson and a preview of Memorial Day Weekend in Sin City, respectively.
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Daily Mirror
28-05-2025
- Daily Mirror
Man brands his flatmate a 'disgusting slob' - and then is found dead days later
When police in Las Vegas responded to a report "of a foul-smelling odour" coming from a storage container, they eventually discovered Matthew Kelemen's rotting body A man branded his flatmate "a disgusting slob" - and was discovered dead just days later Police responding to a report "of a foul-smelling odour" coming from a storage container found Matthew Kelemen's decomposing corpse. It was wrapped in a sheet inside a locked plastic bin on a residential street in Downtown South, Las Vegas, last Tuesday. It has since emerged the 56-year-old man, who was a freelance journalist, told his family his flatmate was a "disgusting slob" and he felt "really uneasy living there". The flatmate became prime suspect in the murder investigation in Las Vegas but he died days later in a high-speed police chase. He topped speeds of 140mph before hitting spike strips, losing control, and being ejected from the car on a highway in Utah, a pursuit police say was unconnected to the murder probe. Mr Kelemen, who spent most of his career at Las Vegas Magazine, likely died as a result of blunt force trauma, it is understood. His sister, Mikki Zaferatos told local media the Review-Journal investigators believe he was struck from behind with a hammer. Speaking to the outlet, Ms Zaferatos said: "He'd only lived there for about six months, but he kept telling my brother what a strange guy [the flatmate] was. He said he was really uneasy living there. 'The guy was a disgusting slob,' were his words." Mr Kelemen, a keen musician, had told his sister he intended to "confront" the flatmate about his behaviour, an admission which helped identify the man as the prime murder suspect. But the 63-year-old suspect died following the crash in Utah, police confirmed. Utah Highway Patrol did not give reporters further details about the chase, except stressing it was not linked to the murder probe in the neighbouring state. Ms Zaferatos described her family's heartbreak as "horror movie stuff". She added: "I'm barely holding it together... I could not process what was going through my brain." She said police told her her brother's rotting body was found in what they described as a large crate. Ms Zaferatos believes this was one of the writer's amplifier boxes as he liked to play the guitar. Mr Keleman had worked as a reporter in the Las Vegas area since he moved there in 2003, and was a staff writer at now-defunct 944 and City Life magazines. At the time of his death, he also freelanced for Las Vegas Weekly and Vegas magazine. His last pieces published before his death were pieces about Janet Jackson and a preview of Memorial Day Weekend in Sin City, respectively.
The Guardian
27-05-2025
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Freelance writer found dead in Las Vegas container, police say
The remains of a longtime freelance writer in Las Vegas were found last week inside a container at a downtown business, authorities said. Las Vegas police said in a news release that they discovered the body of Matthew Kelemen, 56, while responding to a report 'of a foul-smelling odor' coming from the container. Kelemen's cause and manner of death were still under investigation, the coroner's office in Las Vegas said. Police said they identified Kelemen's 63-year-old roommate as the suspect in his death. But the suspect died last week after crashing during a high-speed car chase involving the Utah highway patrol, police said. The car chase was unrelated to the investigation into Kelemen's death, police said, but the department did not give further details. It also has not identified the type of business where Kelemen's body was found or a possible motive. Kelemen's sister, Mikki Zaferatos, told the Las Vegas Review-Journal that her brother had been planning to move out of the room he was renting in a house also occupied by the suspect. Zaferatos said her brother 'was really uneasy living there' and that he had described his roommate as 'strange'. For two decades, Kelemen contributed film reviews, profiles, feature stories and more to local publications, including Las Vegas Weekly. A short story he wrote about Donny Osmond's Strip residency published over the weekend in Las Vegas Magazine. Kelemen moved to Las Vegas in 2003 and had been a staff writer for several years at the now-defunct 944 and City Life magazines, the Review-Journal reported.
Daily Mail
27-05-2025
- Daily Mail
Mystery as journalist is found murdered and stuffed in a box after warehouse employee noticed 'foul smell'
An investigation into the mysterious death of a Las Vegas journalist dramatically ended with the suspected killer also dying in a fiery police chase in the Utah desert. The chilling series of events began earlier this month when freelance journalist Matthew Kelemen, 56, was killed and stuffed in a box inside a storage container in Sin City. His decomposing body was found on May 20 when an employee discovered a 'foul-smelling odor' coming from the storage container. Officials have not yet released a cause of death, however Keleman's sister Mikki Zeferatos told the Las Vegas Review Journal that investigators believe he was struck from behind with a hammer. As cops looked into the gruesome death, they discovered Kelemen's roommate Joseph Del Rivo, 63, had hired the storage container through a luggage storage app called Bounce. Del Rivo had dropped the box with Kelemen's remains inside at the facility days before, and employees reportedly found the decomposing journalist when a moving company came to pick up the storage container. As investigators zeroed in on Del Rivo, that same day the suspect was involved in an unrelated police chase when he led the Utah Highway Patrol on a daring pursuit. The chase ended when Del Rivo flipped his vehicle off the highway and it exploded in a fireball, killing the murder suspect hundreds of miles from where his alleged victim had been found dead hours before. Kelemen's family say they last heard from the Las Vegas journalist shortly before his death, when his brother Steve said he told him he was getting ready to move out of his living arrangement with Del Rivo. 'He'd only lived there for about six months, but he kept telling my brother what a strange guy this was,' Zeferatos said. 'He said he was really uneasy living there. 'The guy was a disgusting slob,' were his words.' Kelemen's sister recalled her brother told his family that he planned to tell Del Rivo that he was unhappy with their dynamic, but warned them that he was 'worried about how he's going to react.' Zeferatos said investigators told her that the Bounce app that Del Rivo allegedly used to try and transport her brother's body is typically used by businesses to transport goods and store them short-term. He was found in a box inside a large crate, which she believes may have been one of Kelemen's guitar amplifiers. 'Matt played the guitar and he had amplifiers, and it was a big black box,' she said. Utah authorities said the chase that ended in Del Rivo's death unfolded around 5:45pm when a trooper saw him speeding down Interstate 70. Cops said in a press release that Del Rivo drove up behind the squad car at 'over 90mph', before accelerating further when the trooper activated his sirens and tried to pull him over. Del Rivo reached speeds of over 140mph as he led the trooper on a chase for around 10 miles, while other troopers began deploying spike strips down the interstate. The murder suspect's front tires were destroyed by the spike strips during the chase, however authorities said he still tried evading police and drove with flat tires for another three miles. The chase eventually came to a dramatic end when a second set of strip spikes were laid on the highway, and Del Rivo attempted to swerve out of the way. He lost control of the vehicle and flipped it off the interstate, which killed Del Rivo as he was ejected from the car before it exploded into a fireball. Kelemen was a well-known freelance reporter in the Las Vegas area and had been published in a number of outlets since he moved to the city in 2003. He had been a staff writer at the now-closed 944 and City Life magazines, and was most recently published in Las Vegas Magazine in a preview for the Memorial Day weekend. Zaferatos said the discovery of her brother's body was 'horror-movie stuff', and said her family has suffered a 'rough couple of days.' 'I'm barely holding it together,' she said.
