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Joseph Del Rivo’s crashed and burned out car (Utah Highway Patrol).
A Las Vegas murder mystery appears to have concluded in Utah — without justice — as the presumed killer died while on the lam.
In mid-May, Matthew Kelemen, 56, a freelance journalist who often wrote for “Las Vegas Magazine,” was killed. His body was then wrapped in a tarp and locked in a storage container — and left to decompose at a business that stores luggage in downtown Sin City.
The discovery was made on May 20, when an employee noticed a “foul-smelling odor” coming from the storage container in question, according to the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department (LVMPD). The offending parcel, it turned out, had been dropped off on May 16.
At the business, customers use a mobile app to arrange their luggage drop-offs. Police quickly put the information to work.
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Joseph Del Rivo, 63, the victim’s roommate, was soon on law enforcement’s radar as the presumed suspect in the slaying.
But the pursuit of information did not last long.
“On May 21, 2025, detectives were notified that Del Rivo was involved in an unrelated high-speed pursuit with the Utah Highway Patrol the day prior, which resulted in his death after he crashed,” the press release reads.
On Tuesday, at around 5:45 p.m. Mountain Time, a trooper noticed Del Rivo traveling along Interstate 70 — coming up behind him, heading eastbound and presumably speeding.
“He measured the suspect vehicle’s speed over 90 mph,” the Beehive State police wrote in a press release. “He activated his emergency lights and the suspect vehicle fled increasing its speeds to 140+.”
The trooper gave chase for roughly 10 miles — from mile marker 30 to 40 — as other troopers lying in wait deployed spike strips.
“The vehicle was successfully spiked on the driver side tires,” the Utah press release continues. “The suspect vehicle continued eastbound at a high-rate of speed. After continuing for 3-miles the left front tire began to come apart as it was flat.”
Near mile marker 30, however, a local officer deployed another round of spike strips. This time, Del Rivo swerved to try and avoid the vehicle-impeding devices but lost control.
“[T]he suspect vehicle took evasive action and left the roadway overturning several times and ejecting the driver,” the Utah press release goes on. “The 63-year-old male driver sustained fatal injuries in the crash being ejected from the vehicle.”
Joseph Del Rivo’s crashed and burned out car — seen from another perspective (Utah Highway Patrol).
The story behind the two deaths is, for now, still a mystery.
Police say Kelemen likely died of blunt force trauma, according to documents obtained by Las Vegas-based CBS affiliate KLAS.
Still, some details have come out by way of the victim’s family.
Kelemen’s sister offered a macabre guess about the container her brother’s body was stored in by his apparent killer.
“We believe that might have been one of my brother’s amplifier boxes,” she told the Las Vegas Review-Journal. “Matt played the guitar and he had amplifiers, and it was a big black box.”
The last time his family made contact, she said, was during a phone call in which the murdered man complained about the hygiene of his roommate — who he had only lived with for some six months.
“He said he was really uneasy living there,” she told the newspaper. “‘The guy was a disgusting slob,’ were his words. Matt said, ‘OK, I’m going to tell him. I’m just worried about how he’s going to react.’”
