Las Vegas — The remains of a long-time freelance writer in Las Vegas were discovered last week inside a container at a downtown store, authorities said.
According to a news release, Las Vegas police discovered Matthew Kelemen’s, 56, body on May 20 while responding to a report “of a foul-smelling odour” coming from the container.
The reason and manner of Kelemen’s death were still being investigated, the Las Vegas coroner’s office said Tuesday.
The suspect in Kelemen’s death has been identified by police as his 63-year-old flatmate. However, the suspect died last week after crashing during a high-speed chase with the Utah Highway Patrol, according to officials.
The car chase was unrelated to the Kelemen death investigation, according to police, although the agency did not provide any other information in its news release. It has also not determined the type of business where Kelemen’s body was discovered, or the likely motivation.
Kelemen’s sister, Mikki Zaferatos, told the Las Vegas Review-Journal that her brother had planned to move out of the room he was renting in the same house as the suspect.
Zaferatos stated that her brother “was really uneasy living there” and had described his flatmate as “strange.”
Kelemen has written film reviews, profiles, feature pieces, and other content for local magazines such as Las Vegas Weekly for the past two decades. He penned a brief essay about Donny Osmond’s Strip residency, which was published this weekend in Las Vegas magazine.
Kelemen relocated to Las Vegas in 2003 and previously worked as a staff writer for the now-defunct 944 and City Life magazines, according to the Review-Journal.
