Vegas shooting devastates family

The father of a 33-year-old Hawaii native who was shot and killed last week in Las Vegas viewed photos of his dead daughter apparently taken by her killer.

Her 34-year-old husband, Mauricio Melendez of Las Vegas, appeared in court yesterday and has been charged with murder with a deadly weapon, according to local media reports.

"He took pictures even when she died," said Pablo Langaran, father of the dead woman, Chennel Lovelove Melendez, in an interview. "He took pictures every four hours, changing the towel on her head, some of them blood(y), some of them new. ... I think he was planning something for the body."

Langaran said a video on a disk also showed the body in various states of manipulation.

Chennel was shot last week inside the family's apartment near the University of Nevada at Las Vegas. The coroner said she died of a gunshot wound to the head, Fox5News Las Vegas reported.

Langaran said when he went to see his daughter's body, "I said, 'Baby, you got to tell Daddy what happened.'"

He and his daughter Claudine Eggleston went to the Melendezes' apartment to pick up clothes for the couple's 7-year-old son, Ciran, on Monday.

Eggleston said she found her sister's digital camera, hoping to find some nice memories, but instead began screaming when she saw the photos.

"It's very disturbing," she said. "It's a very disturbing situation right now."

Eggleston said her sister, a Kaimuki High School graduate, moved to Las Vegas a little more than 10 years ago, lived with her grandmother a short time and met Melendez not long after and married.

"He shot her Wednesday night about 11 o'clock," Langaran said. "When he shot her, he left her there to bleed to death.

"The hardest part is we got one grandson, 7 years old, and he was coming out and asking, 'What's happened to Mommy? What's coming out of her ears?'"

Las Vegas Now, a local TV station, reported Aug. 8 that a police report said the 7-year-old heard the bang and later saw his mother sitting in a chair covered with a towel. When he asked his father what happened, Melendez said, "Nothing," the report said.

The boy wanted to know what was coming out of his mother's ears and Melendez told him it was juice and later said ketchup. The next day, he kept the boy inside his room.

Las Vegas Now said Melendez has changed his story several times but admitted to shooting his wife. The police report of that day said Melendez and his wife were drinking at a barbecue at their apartment, and went to a convenience store to get more alcohol after consuming 20 bottles of beer.