Man shot grandmother, buried her in desert, police say

A 29-year-old man accused of killing his grandmother allegedly shot her in the head and buried her body in two storage containers in the Nye County desert, according to a Las Vegas police arrest report.

Metropolitan Police Department officers on Tuesday arrested Matthew Ayala on suspicion of murder with a deadly weapon in connection with the death of his grandmother, identified in the arrest report as Yolanda Ayala. Nye County Sheriff’s Office deputies, who were helping Metro search for the woman, found her body on Tuesday in partially buried storage containers in an Amargosa Valley desert area.

Yolanda Ayala’s family became concerned for her safety when Matthew Ayala drove to his mother’s Las Vegas home on Saturday and said his grandmother had died in the apartment they shared, according to the report. But when his family went to the apartment, at 5850 Sky Pointe Drive, they “noticed things out of the ordinary,” and contacted Metro.

Detectives found no record of Yolanda Ayala’s death or hospitalization, the report said. Police arrested Matthew Ayala on Saturday on an outstanding warrant but he declined to speak with investigators.

Investigators then found blood in the apartment’s kitchen sink, on a towel and on one of Matthew Ayala’s shirts, the report said. A neighbor reported hearing loud noises in the apartment around Dec. 31 and later observed a man “rolling a red dolly, with a large box,” out of the home.

Police determined Matthew Ayala threw out his grandmother’s mattress and box spring, but when investigators searched a local dump, they did not find the woman’s body, the report said.

Investigators learned the younger Ayala had rented a U-Haul truck late Jan 1, the report said. Using cell phone records, police determined he had traveled to Amargosa Valley after he rented the truck.

Matthew Ayala was released from the Las Vegas City Jail on Sunday, one day after his arrest on the outstanding warrant, the report said.

But on Tuesday, a Nye County Sheriff’s Office deputy searching in the area where Matthew Ayala was believed to have traveled found “a storage tote, partially buried in the desert,” with drag marks on the ground, it said.

An investigator then found a second partially buried storage tote, and began digging. She found “what she believed to be a body part inside” of one of the containers. Police then uncovered Yolanda Ayala’s body, the report said.

“Yolanda appeared to be wrapped in blankets and bed sheets,” the report said. “Yolanda appeared to have a gunshot wound to her head.”

Matthew Ayala was arrested again that night at his mother’s Las Vegas home, the report said. He again declined to speak with detectives.

Matthew Ayala has no felony criminal record in Clark County, although he has pleaded guilty to misdemeanor charges, court records show. In 2014 and 2018 he was convicted of disorderly conduct misdemeanors, and in April 2018 he pleaded guilty to discharging a weapon where a person might be endangered, a gross misdemeanor.

A hearing in the murder case is scheduled for Monday, court records show. He remained in the Clark County Detention Center on Friday without bail.

Contact Katelyn Newberg at knewberg@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0240. Follow @k_newberg on Twitter.