Ah, I see what you're concerned about. The implied structure there is something like:

    In the wake of Flappy Bird's demise, rumors spread:
    Nguyen had committed suicide; Nintendo was suing
    him; he'd received death threats. His refusal to
    speak fueled the speculation even more.

But their approach has more literary force, so I think what they did was a reasonable author's choice, not an editing error.