In the fall of 2016, the life of Denis Katz, a 63-year-old Caucasian male, came to a brutal and tragic end in Las Vegas, Nevada. On October 5, 2016, his body was discovered callously discarded, concealed beneath a couch near an overpass on Interstate 15. The Clark County coroner's office would later determine that Katz's death was a homicide, caused by asphyxia and blunt-force trauma.
The investigation into his death revealed a grim sequence of events that began with a heated argument.
Katz had been in a dispute with his 32-year-old former roommate, Christopher Ram Parlade, over evicting him and another man from his residence. The confrontation, which reportedly took place over a Facebook Messenger video chat, escalated violently. According to witness accounts, an enraged Parlade physically assaulted Katz, beating him with his fists and striking his head against a hard surface.
The violence continued until Katz was rendered unconscious. In a horrific series of acts, his head was then wrapped with tape and a white cloth. After he ceased struggling, he was dragged into the bathroom. To further conceal his identity, a white pillowcase was placed over his head, and his hands and feet were bound with nylon rope. It is believed that Parlade, with the help of at least two other individuals, then wrapped Katz's body in multiple layers including a sleeping bag, a blue tarp, a packing blanket, and bedsheets before securing the sleeping bag with zip ties.
The investigation led authorities to Parlade after they recovered Katz's stolen 2005 Lexus SUV in December 2016. Inside the vehicle, investigators found items that linked Parlade to a separate burglary and stolen vehicle case. A year after the discovery of Katz's body, in October 2017, Christopher Ram Parlade was charged with his murder. It is believed that after the murder, Parlade and his accomplices used Katz's own SUV to transport and dispose of his body.
