Latest news with #DelRivo
NDTV
28-05-2025
- NDTV
US Journalist Killed, Body Found In Container, Suspect Dies In Car Crash
A Las Vegas freelance journalist was allegedly killed and his body was packed in a container by his flatmate, police said. Days after Matthew Kelemen's body was discovered at a downtown establishment after police checked into a foul odour, his suspected murderer, Joseph Del Rivo, was also killed in a car crash in Utah. The Las Vegas Metro police found Kelemen's remains on Tuesday after receiving a report of a stench at a store on North 3rd Street in Downtown Las Vegas, roughly a week after the murder. Police said Del Rivo, 63, was killed in a high-speed pursuit which had nothing to do with the investigation. On Monday, Del Rivo himself dropped off the container, saying he or someone would pick it up in about a week. The following day, he allegedly hired a logistics firm to retrieve the container. Employees noticed a bad smell when the package was taken out and informed the authorities. Advertisement According to the Las Vegas coroner's office, the reason and cause for Kelemen's death are still under investigation. Detectives reportedly believe Kelemen most likely died from blunt force injuries. According to multiple accounts, Kelemen was a freelance journalist who contributed to Las Vegas Magazine. Mikki Zaferatos, Kelemen's sister, described the dramatic events unfolding "like horror-movie stuff." Advertisement Ms Zaferatos told the Las Vegas Review-Journal that her brother was preparing to vacate the room he rented in a house where the suspect, Del Rivo, also resided. According to her, Kelemen had only been there for roughly six months, but "he kept telling, my brother, what a strange guy this was." Advertisement Kelemen reportedly claimed that living there made him extremely uncomfortable. "The guy was a disgusting slob,' were his words," she added. Ms Zaferatos said she received a call from the Clark County coroner's office from her home in Apopka, Florida, at approximately 3 pm Eastern time on Wednesday. Advertisement Two days after discovering her brother's horrific murder, she told the publication, "I could not process what was going through my brain." According to Kelemen's Muck Rack page, his work has been published in magazines like The Daily Beast, Las Vegas Sun, and Las Vegas Weekly. He reviewed Janet Jackson's residency in his most recent piece, published after his death. He worked as a staff writer for the now-defunct publications City Life and 944 for several years. Advertisement Kelemen, who was unmarried, is survived by his older brothers, Steven and Vincent, and his younger sister, Mikki. The entire collection of Kelemen's writing from Las Vegas, which dates back to 2003, is preserved by the family.
Yahoo
27-05-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Las Vegas Journalist Feared Confronting His 'Disgusting Slob' Roommate. Days Later, They Both Were Dead
A Las Vegas journalist's fears about his roommate turned out to be tragically well-founded: He was found murdered inside a storage container — and the roommate, who was the suspect, died days later in a high-speed police Vegas Metro Police discovered the body of Matthew Kelemen, 56, decomposing and wrapped in a tarp inside a locked plastic bin near Fremont Street on May 20 after responding to reports of a foul odor, the department wrote in a press a longtime writer who most recently worked for Las Vegas Magazine, likely died as a result of blunt force trauma, according to documents reviewed by KLAS and the Las Vegas Review-Journal. The victim's sister Mikki Zaferatos told the Review-Journal that investigators believe he was struck from behind with a hammer. A witness told police the container had been dropped off four days earlier. Investigators quickly determined it had been rented using the Bounce storage app by Kelemen's roommate, Joseph Del Rivo, per the documents obtained by KLAS and the Review-Journal. The following day, Del Rivo was killed in Utah during a high-speed police pursuit, according to Utah Highway Patrol. Authorities say Del Rivo was clocked driving more than 90 mph behind a trooper's vehicle on I-70. When the trooper activated his lights and sirens, Del Rivo fled — reaching speeds of up to 140 mph before hitting spike strips, losing control, and being ejected from the the days before his death, Kelemen had told his family he planned to move out, Zaferatos told the Review-Journal. Want to keep up with the latest crime coverage? Sign up for for breaking crime news, ongoing trial coverage and details of intriguing unsolved cases. 'He'd only lived there for about six months, but he kept telling my brother what a strange guy [Del Rivo] was,' Zaferatos told the outlet. 'He said he was really uneasy living there. 'The guy was a disgusting slob,' were his words.'She said Kelemen had planned to confront his roommate — but told family he was 'worried about how [Del Rivo's] going to act.' Police told Zaferatos that her brother was shoved into what they described as a large crate. 'We believe that might have been one of my brother's amplifier boxes,' Zaferatos told the Review-Journal. 'Matt played the guitar and he had amplifiers, and it was a big black box.' Zaferatos said her family has had a "rough couple of days" after the discovery of her brother's body, which she described as "horror movie stuff." "I'm barely holding it together," she told the outlet two days after Keleman's body was found. "I could not process what was going through my brain." 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. Read the original article on People
