In the pre-dawn hours of May 27, 1996, in Las Vegas, 27-year-old drywall worker Michael Matta was shot to death while rummaging through trash bins in a condominium complex in the 5100 block of Gray Lane. His body was found riddled with bullets; investigators recovered more than 20 bullet casings at the scene, a detail described as overkill.

Investigators later connected Matta’s killing to a series of random, so-called thrill killings attributed to three young men: Tony Amati, Troy Sampson, and Edward James. Ballistics tied guns stolen from a local gun store one day before Matta’s murder to that shooting; the same weapons were sold to an undercover officer in October 1996 and later matched to the slayings. A grand jury indicted all three on November 24, 1996, but charges against Sampson and James were dropped for lack of evidence. Amati was arrested February 27, 1998, and at trial was acquitted of Matta’s murder but convicted of a different killing and sentenced to life.

Does anyone have information about Michael Matta’s activities that night or recall seeing suspicious people or vehicles near Gray Lane in late May 1996?