LAS VEGAS – A Las Vegas man who is a convicted sex offender is accused of killing his roommate and lived with her decomposing body inside a barricaded closet for two months because he “believed she might come back to life,” according to law enforcement authorities.
George Anthony Bone, 31, was identified as the demented homicide suspect. He was arrested Wednesday and charged with murder once the victim’s family discovered her corpse inside the shared residence, the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department announced in a press release.
Beverly Ma was later identified as the victim. She was Bone’s longtime friend from high school who moved in with him last summer.
The accused killer reportedly told law enforcement authorities the woman committed suicide and had been dead for “a while,” 8 News Now reported, citing court documents.
The homicide was discovered when Ma’s family visited the home to discuss an unusually high bill related to air conditioning. Bone reportedly told a female family member that Ma was “dead and gone” and had been in the closet for two months before offering to show them her body. The discovery brought police to the scene.
“She noticed a cooler against the bedroom closet door and the bottom of the door had a towel, which covered the gap,” court documents read.
“George told her that she can open it and see.”
Although the cause of Ma’s death remains under investigation, detectives determined she was the victim of murder and believe she was likely strangled, according to court documents.
On May 4 police received a frantic 911 call from the residence. A man and a woman could be heard yelling, and the call ended with a woman’s voice asking, “Why?”
Officers responded and knocked at the door but no one answered and there were no outward signs of a crime, police said, reported the New York Post.
Hence, investigators believe May 4 was likely the day the woman was killed.
“When asked why he didn’t call for help, (when she allegedly committed suicide) Bone’s response was ‘I was afraid of going back to jail… for being found with a dead body,” according to court records.
Furthermore, Bone is accused of fraudulently using Ma’s financial accounts as her decomposing body remained in place.
Investigators said he ordered more than 170 items that were charged to Ma’s Amazon account and used her phone to text a person saying she would be unable to attend a July 4 party because she “wanted to be sober, not travel and not be around people.”
In an effort to reportedly limit the number of flies attracted to the decomposing body in the home, he set the air conditioning to 60 degrees, the Review-Journal reported.
“That was me being simultaneously superstitious and um, just distraught,” Bone said of the statement. “Just watching too many horror movies and ghost stories growing up.”
Bone is being held at the Clark County Detention Center without bail.
Bone has a prior arrest in 2012 for sexually assaulting an 11-year-old girl. In 2013, he pleaded no-contest to attempted lewdness with a child under 14. He was sentenced to two to eight years in state prison and is a level-three registered sex offender in Nevada, court records revealed.
