Suspect in custody after triple murder in Utah: 'IT HAD TO BE DONE'
· Toronto Sun
The suspect who was arrested in connection with the deaths of three women in Utah allegedly confessed to the slayings.
Ivan Miller, of Blakesburg, Iowa, was taken into custody after two women — aunt and niece Linda Dewey, 65, and Natalie Graves, 34 — were found dead on a hiking trail in the area of Cocks Comb Trailhead.
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The body of the first victim, 86-year-old Margaret Oldroyd, was found in a residence in Wayne County, officials said in a release on Wednesday.
“On Wednesday afternoon, dispatch received a call regarding two deceased females located on a hiking trail,” officials said in a statement. “During the course of the investigation, a third victim was located deceased at a residence in Wayne County.”
Miller was captured early Thursday in Colorado after law enforcement found one of the victim’s vehicles abandoned in Pagosa Springs.
He was taken into custody without incident, and remains in Colorado awaiting extradition to Utah, the department said in a news release .
Miller has since been charged with three counts of aggravated murder, according to charging documents filed in the Sixth District Court in Utah, per the New York Post .
Tracing alleged killer’s footsteps
The 22-year-old told authorities that he shot the women with a .45-calibre handgun and stabbed one of them multiple times, according to the documents.
“Miller said he did it because he needed money,” the documents, which do not name the victims, allege.
Cops added that Miller said it “had to be done” but that “he did not like to do it.”
He also told investigators that he spent the previous night inside a shed in Lyman, Utah, before entering a woman’s home and hid until she sat down to watch television before allegedly shooting her dead.
Miller then confessed to dragging the woman into the basement, according to police.
Wanted a better car
He then took her Buick, the documents allege, “but he did not like the car and wanted to find a different vehicle,” the document said.
He allegedly parked near a hiking trail after seeing two women get out of a white Subaru.
Miller told police he shot them both, then stabbed the older of the two multiple times in the heart because she continued to move.
He then allegedly dumped the women’s bodies in a ditch and stole their credit cards to buy gas.
An investigation was launched after Dewey and Graves’ husbands reported finding their bodies Wednesday afternoon, the Utah Department of Public Safety said in a release .
Oldroyd’s car was found abandoned near the scene.
Once police identified the vehicle’s owner, they conducted a welfare check at her home where they found blood in her front room and drag marks leading out of the house, according to the documents.
“It appeared the female was moved using a wheelbarrow,” the documents detail.
Investigators were able to track Miller with the stolen Subaru’s key fob.
Previous arrest of accused
Miller had previously been booked into the Davis County, Iowa, jail on Dec. 31, KSTU reported.
He had been charged with a felony count of burglary and misdemeanour counts of theft, marijuana possession and unlawfully possessing a weapon.
The investigation into the triple homicide is ongoing.