LAS VEGAS (KTNV) — More details are coming to light after a man was accused of killing his roommate. That's after her family members found her dead in a southwest Las Vegas home.
On July 26, a woman went to a home at 5347 Railroad River Avenue, which is near South Lindell Road and West Eldorado Lane, with her mother and girlfriend. It was to check on her sister, Beverly Ma, who lived there with her boyfriend George Bone.
Ma's family said she smoked a lot of marijuana, drank a lot, and had trauma related to her past so the family wasn't close. However, they tried to keep in touch and support her. Ma's family said they last saw her in-person in April 2023 when they traveled to Las Vegas to install two exterior video surveillance cameras at Ma's house.
When they got to the house, she told police she also brought an air conditioning repairman because the bill that month was almost $700. Bone was inside and Ma's family said he told them Ma's body was in the closet and had been there for two months. She said she asked Bone why he didn't call 911 and he told her that because he had been arrested before for lewdness with a minor and that he was a man of color, he knew he would be arrested. She said Bone made her angry with how casually he discussed the matter and that he was brushing his teeth the entire time.
According to an arrest report, Bone and Ma met doing martial arts and had known each other since high school. The report states the two developed a romantic relationship after Bone got out of prison in 2019 and they met by chance at the funeral of a mutual friend. That's when Ma asked him to move in with her.
In December, the two fought but Ma's family said the police weren't called. She did attempt to kick Bone out of the house but he allegedly refused to leave. Bone told police they would fight almost every day but things rarely got physical.
However, Ma called police on May 4 and operators heard the two screaming at each other and was heard Ma saying "Why?" Investigators said Ma never responded to the dispatcher's questions and the call was terminated. When dispatch tried to call her back, the call wasn't answered. Patrol officers arrived at the home and knocked but no one answered the door.
Bone told officers he was going about his day in early May and couldn't find Ma. He said he eventually found her "slumped over with her face facing at him" in the master bedroom closet. He said he noticed a "belt" around Ma's neck and that he removed it and laid her on the ground. He said he didn't want to look at her anymore so he covered her body with a blanket.
In the report, investigators don't agree with that version of events. They said the body positioning was not consistent with a person hanging before being lowered to the floor. The closet rod didn't have any marking that it was used to suspend a body and no clothes or items in the closed appeared to be disturbed or moved.
According to the arrest report, Bone continued living with the corpse in the closet for two months and started using her Amazon account to purchase 171 items as well as ordering Verizon Internet with her information. Bone said he even placed a cooler in the master bedroom near the closet so that he would be alerted "if [Ma] rose from the dead like the movie The Grudge".
Bone said he turned the air conditioning down to 60 degrees because of "the large number of flies that had started accumulating in the house." The report states he told officers he did that because he knew flies cannot breed under 70 degrees. He also told police "the smell wasn't as bad as thought the movies made it out to be" and he was able to acclimate easily to the smell.
During the interview, police said he began pointing out inconsistencies in Bone's story and Bone stated "since my truth is sounding so much like lies, I think I need to get an attorney."
Bone is being charged with open murder and is scheduled to be in court on Aug. 1.
