3 suspected of torturing, throwing man off cliff near Pahrump

Nye County investigators say a Las Vegas man was beaten, thrown off a cliff and shot because a woman believed that the man had hurt her child.

Roy Jaggers, 27, of Las Vegas was found dead Sunday in Cathedral Canyon, near Pahrump, according to Nye County Sheriff’s Office deputies.

Investigators from the Metropolitan Police Department and the Sheriff’s Office spoke to Jaggers’ mother, who said the last person he was in contact with was a neighbor named Heather Pate, 27, of Las Vegas.

Deputies said that after detaining Pate and her boyfriend, Kevin Dent, 36, of Las Vegas, they discovered evidence that Pate and Dent lured Jaggers to Pate’s home, believing he had hurt Pate’s child.

The pair beat and handcuffed Jaggers before driving him to Pahrump, where they met up with Pate’s former boyfriend Brad Mehn, 37, of Pahrump, deputies said.

“They met Mehn who led them to an area in the desert where they tortured Jaggers over multiple hours, utilizing numerous different weapons,” the Sheriff’s Office said in a video statement Thursday night. “After they finished torturing Jaggers, they drove him to Cathedral Canyon, approximately 25 miles away, where they threw him off the cliff into the gorge where they subsequently shot at him numerous times, ultimately killing him.”

Jaggers was determined to have died from multiple gunshots.

The trio is being held without bail on charges of murder, kidnapping, conspiracy to commit murder and battery with substantial bodily harm.

Contact Sabrina Schnur at sschnur@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0278. Follow @sabrina_schnur on Twitter.