Solved cold cases in Utah
4 documented cases.
Krystal Beslanowitch
Krystal Lynn Beslanowitch, a 17-year-old runaway from Spokane, Washington, was found bludgeoned to death with a granite rock along the banks of the Provo River near Midway in Wasatch County, Utah, in December 1995. The case went cold for nearly 18 years until investigators used a new wet-vacuum forensic tool, the M-Vac, to recover touch DNA from the rough surface of the rock weapon. The profile matched Joseph Michael Simpson, a paroled killer, who was arrested in Florida in 2013 and convicted of aggravated murder in 2016.
Loretta Jones
Loretta Jones, a 23-year-old mother, was stabbed to death in her home in Price, Utah, in July 1970, and her body was found the next morning by her 4-year-old daughter, Heidi. She had been sexually assaulted and stabbed seventeen times. Police quickly focused on Thomas Edward Egley, a man Loretta had briefly dated, but a judge dismissed the murder charge in November 1970 for lack of evidence, and Egley moved to Colorado. The case sat cold for nearly four decades, and much of the original physical evidence, including a swab that might have yielded usable DNA, was lost over the years. The case was not reopened until 2009, when the victim's grown daughter asked a high-school acquaintance who had become a Carbon County sheriff's sergeant, David Brewer, to look again. Brewer rebuilt the case without DNA: he re-examined the single surviving crime-scene photograph and made out the letters T and O that Loretta had written in her own blood, he tracked old witnesses across the country, and he finally obtained a recorded confession from Egley with the help of one of Egley's own neighbors. Egley pleaded guilty to murder in 2016 and was sentenced to ten years to life.
Susan Cox Powell
Susan Cox Powell, 28, a mother of two who worked at a Wells Fargo call center, was last seen at her home in West Valley City, Utah on the evening of December 6, 2009. Her husband, Josh Powell, told police he had left her asleep at half past midnight and taken their sons, aged four and two, camping in the desert of Tooele County in freezing weather. Officers found fans drying a wet patch on the carpet, and later drops of Susan's blood beside a freshly cleaned sofa. Josh hired a lawyer, stopped answering detectives and was named a person of interest. He moved the boys to his father's house in Puyallup, Washington. In September 2011 his father, Steven Powell, was arrested on voyeurism charges, prosecutors said Susan was among the women he had secretly photographed, and a judge gave the boys to Susan's parents. On February 5, 2012, Josh locked a social worker out of a supervised visit and killed himself and both boys in a house fire. His brother Michael, who had sold a Ford Taurus for scrap in Oregon weeks after Susan vanished and was the main beneficiary of Josh's life insurance, died by suicide in February 2013. On May 20, 2013 West Valley City police closed the active investigation, saying they believed Josh killed his wife and that Michael was heavily involved in getting rid of her body. Susan has never been found.
William Ercanbrack
William Ercanbrack, 47, a well-known rancher in Summit County, Utah, was shot in the back on Thursday, October 28, 1976, as he opened the gate to his ranch in Clarks Canyon, about seven miles east of Coalville. The sheriff's office said the shot came from about 300 feet away, fired from a high-powered, small-caliber rifle by someone who had waited along a fence line. Some investigators first thought it was a hunting accident during deer season, but that idea was ruled out. Nobody was arrested, and the case stayed open for more than 30 years. In November 2010 the sheriff's office publicly appealed for information. In early 2015 the Summit County Sheriff's Cold Case Team obtained information from what it called a reliable source, who was granted anonymity. On July 28, 2015, the sheriff's and county attorney's offices announced that the evidence would now be enough to charge George B. Toone, of San Bernardino, California, but that he had died of natural causes on September 11, 2001. Investigators said the motive was a land dispute. In May 2022 Salt Lake City police said that fingerprints from a 1974 Salt Lake City murder also matched Toone.