As investigators raced to seek out the particular person accountable for three killings in rural Wayne County, Utah, they used automated license plate readers and a sufferer’s personal automobile key fob to trace their suspect – a person police stated has no connection to the victims or the area that’s identified for its awe-inspiring landscapes dotted with quiet, small cities.
It would take simply hours to pin down the suspect in a search that spanned a number of states in the Four Corners area of the Southwest – ending early Thursday with the arrest of 22-year-old Iowa resident Ivan Miller, who’s charged with three counts of first-degree, aggravated homicide, officers stated.
Miller was taken into custody in Colorado, officers stated –– greater than 350 miles from the place the our bodies of three ladies had been discovered at two areas in Utah.
Miller’s first court docket look is scheduled for Friday afternoon in Archuleta County, Colorado. He will likely be represented by a public defender, court docket data present.
The victims had been recognized as Margaret Oldroyd, 86; Linda Dewey, 65; and Natalie Graves, 34, Utah’s Department of Public Safety stated.
Dewey and Graves, an aunt and niece who’d gone for a hike collectively, had been discovered dead close to a trailhead simply outdoors the city of Torrey, Utah’s DPS stated. The ladies’s our bodies had been discovered by their husbands who grew involved when the pair didn’t return from their hike, Utah Highway Patrol spokesperson Lt. Cameron Roden stated at a information convention Thursday.
Investigators discovered Oldroyd’s automobile at the trailhead and deputies went to her residence in close by Lyman, the place they found her physique, Roden stated.
After his arrest, Miller instructed investigators he spent an evening in Oldroyd’s again shed and snuck into her home whereas she was out, in keeping with an indictment filed in court docket Thursday. Miller “waited for her behind a door and shot her in the back of the head … while she was sitting down to watch television,” the indictment stated.
Miller made efforts to scrub up the scene earlier than dragging the 86-year-old’s physique to a cellar underneath the shed, the place she was later discovered, the indictment learn. He then stole her Buick Regal and traveled to the trailhead, investigators stated. Miller instructed investigators “he did not like the car and wanted to find a different vehicle,” the indictment stated.
At the trailhead, Miller stated he noticed Dewey and Graves get out of a white Subaru and shot them each, in keeping with the indictment. Miller instructed investigators he stabbed one in every of the ladies in the chest a number of occasions as a result of she was nonetheless transferring, the doc stated.
He then admitted dragging their our bodies right into a ditch, the place the two had been found by their husbands, the indictment stated.
Officials stated Miller ditched Oldroyd’s automobile at the path and drove away in the white Subaru. Miller additionally admitted stealing the ladies’s bank cards and utilizing one to pay for gasoline, in keeping with paperwork.
Investigators used a community of license plate scanners to trace the Subaru “through southern Utah into northern Arizona and eventually into Colorado,” Roden stated.
“Colorado law enforcement located the vehicle abandoned in Pagosa Springs, Colorado, and after a brief search, took the individual into custody without incident,” Utah DPS stated Thursday.
One of the husbands was additionally in a position to monitor the automobile’s location utilizing an app that monitored the automobile’s key fob, investigators stated. Just after 9 p.m. Wednesday, the key fob gave the impression to be in Farmington, New Mexico — about two hours southwest of the place Miller would later be taken into custody, in keeping with the indictment.
Miller had a handgun and a big knife in his possession at the time of his arrest, in keeping with police in Pagosa Springs.
Miller instructed investigators he killed the ladies as a result of he wanted cash, in keeping with the indictment. “Miller confessed that it ‘had to be done’ but he did not like to do it,” the doc reads.
Miller, who lived in Blakesburg, Iowa, set out on a cross-country street journey about two and a half weeks in the past, his brother, who spoke with The New York Times on situation of anonymity, stated.
Miller’s brother stated the two stayed involved throughout the journey, and Miller talked about crashing his truck after hitting an elk, in keeping with the Times.
The brother was involved about how Miller was touring round after that and provided to carry him again to Iowa, which he declined, the Times reported.
After his arrest, Miller instructed officers that he had been staying at a resort in the space for a number of days after he hit an elk along with his truck, which he then offered to a tow truck firm, in keeping with the indictment.
On Thursday, shaken residents across Wayne County positioned pink ribbons round bushes and fences of their communities as they remembered the three ladies who had been killed in apparently random assaults carried out by a stranger.
“We wanted to honor our friend and neighbor,” Mary Sorenson, who put up ribbons round Lyman, instructed NCS affiliate KSL.
The Wayne County School District introduced it will be closed for the remainder of the week and would “have counselors in place to support students when we are back in session next week.”
In a statement Thursday, Torrey Mayor Mickey Wright described the a number of homicides as a “heartbreaking moment for our small, close‑knit community.”
“Our community is strong. In the coming days, we will support one another, check on our neighbors, and ensure that those affected by this tragedy are not alone,” Wright stated. “We stand together today — in grief, in compassion, and in solidarity.”