Las Vegas teens killed while returning to UNR remembered fondly

Roman Suslov's white Ford pickup whizzed through Nevada's dark desert just after Thanksgiving weekend. He was headed back to school at the University of Nevada, Reno early Monday with his roommate, Mateo Silva-Medina. Both were 19, and both were from Las Vegas.

But on U.S. Highway 6, just 7 miles past Tonopah, Suslov drifted into the rural highway's only other lane, where oncoming cars could slam into the truck at 70 mph.

To return to his lane, evidence shows he veered sharply right. But the quick correction was too much. The truck tumbled, stopping about 100 feet away from the asphalt as a mangled pile of metal. Despite wearing seat belts, both teens died at the scene.

Neither alcohol nor drugs are suspected, said David Gibson, a Nevada Public Safety Department spokesman, and no other car was involved in the 12:40 a.m. crash.

"Possibly, at that time of the evening, he fell asleep," Gibson said. "We get that a lot out there on that long, lonely road."

"The University of Nevada, Reno offers our condolences and deepest sympathies to the families and friends of these two students," a UNR spokeswoman said this week.

"Keep a little fire burning; however small, however hidden."

Suslov shared that Cormac McCarthy quote from "The Road" on Twitter about two months before he died. On Monday, his friends and fellow students started sharing it again.

"I'll keep your fire burning," one post said.

The neuroscience student who liked video games, anime and acrobatics was empathetic, friends said. On social media, Suslov called himself an "emotional connoisseur" who gave "good relationship advice."

Born in Kazakhstan, he moved to Las Vegas while in elementary school. Suslov spoke little English at first, his childhood friend Sergey Fedossov, 19, said. But the Rancho High School graduate learned. He loved learning.

"He was endlessly curious about tying the human experience into the world of science, coming up with his own blend of philosophy, psychology and science in order to help explain the world," Fedossov said.

That curiosity is what Jacqueline Snow, director of UNR's object perception lab, first noticed when she met Suslov after a guest lecture. When it was over, he came up front with a "host of questions," she said. Before long, he was working at her lab.

"Most students tend to apply to work in a lab toward their final years in their undergraduate degrees, but in his case, it was early," she said. "I think it was a reflection less of him preparing for grad school and more of a reflection of his fundamental interest in neuroscience."

"He stood out," she said. "He was a really bright young student, and it's really a shame."

A week before he died, he shared his own words on Twitter:

"It's important that you never alienate or detach yourself so far from the 'enemy' that you celebrate their death," it read. "We are all human."

Sweet as red velvet

Suslov's passenger, Silva-Medina, was "the most outgoing guy," said Kimberly Meneses, 20. "He made friends everywhere."

The two met at Palo Verde High School, where Silva-Medina graduated and was involved in journalism. He dreamed of working for The New York Times, and enrolled at UNR in the fall to pursue a writing career after taking a year off from school.

Before that, he practiced with poems, which Meneses said he wrote her "all the time." A simple one was on the sign he used to ask her to homecoming: "Hey Kimmy, You're sweet as red velvet, baby. Homecoming with me?"

She said yes, and a week after the dance they were dating.

"He was that awkward funny guy that you just can't help but think is adorable," Meneses said, and "the sweetest kid."

The Harry Potter and Arctic Monkeys fan always looked out for others, Meneses said. Friends too drunk to drive would call him and ask for rides, and whether he was at the movies or salsa dancing or with her, he would drop what he was doing to help.

"We would go pick up people because he didn't want them to drive home," she said. "He cared about everybody."

Contact Rachel Crosby at rcrosby@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-5290. Find her on Twitter: @rachelacrosby