No next of kin came forward to care for Lee Roy Nelson in death.
But 50 people who called themselves his family came together at the Riverside Trail just a few steps from where he died to say goodbye Sunday.Â
Three women, Dorothy Williams, Peggy Love and Leah Philbert, stood at the center of the memorial. Reno Lounge bartender Love remembered Nelson as the kind soul who used to sing karaoke. Philbert also remembered him from the bar as a man known for the trinkets he collected and shared.Â
A photograph of Lee Nelson in a favorite Viking hat hangs at a memorial to him set up near the place where he was murdered.