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An Iowa man charged in the slayings of three women in Utah is alleged to have confessed to the killings, telling authorities “‘it had to be done’ but he did not like to do it,” court documents filed Thursday show.
Charging documents filed in Sixth District Court in Utah allege that Ivan Miller, 22, told law enforcement officers that he shot the women with a .45-caliber handgun and stabbed one of them multiple times.
“Miller said he did it because he needed money,” the documents allege.
He was charged with three counts of aggravated murder, according to the documents. It was not clear whether he has a lawyer to speak on his behalf.
Killed were Margaret Oldroyd, 86; Linda Dewey, 65; and Natalie Graves, 34, the Utah Department of Public Safety said in an update Thursday.
Dewey was Graves’ aunt, the department said. There is no known evidence linking them to Oldroyd, who was the first victim, it said.
They were found Wednesday at two locations near Capitol Reef National Park in south-central Utah.
They do not appear to have had previous connections to Miller, a spokesperson for the Utah Highway Patrol said.
One of the women, described as elderly, was found in a cellar under a shed on her property in Lyman, according to the documents, which do not name the victims.
Miller is alleged to have told authorities that he’d stayed the night in the shed and entered the woman’s home when she left. He waited for her behind a door, the documents allege, then shot her in the back of the head as she sat down to watch television.
Miller said he dragged the woman to the basement and took her car, a Buick, the documents allege, “but he did not like the car and wanted to find a different vehicle.”
He told authorities that he parked near a trail and saw two women — one younger, the other older — get out of a white Subaru, according to the court documents.
Miller said he approached the women and shot them, the documents allege. When the older woman continued moving, Miller said, he stabbed her in the heart multiple times with a knife, according to the documents.
He then dragged the women to a ditch and laid them next to each other, the documents say.
Miller said he took the women’s credit cards and used one to buy gas, the documents say.
The husbands of Dewey and Graves reported finding their bodies at 4:25 p.m. Wednesday and called authorities, the Utah Department of Public Safety said.
A Bureau of Land Management ranger who was sent to the scene at the trailhead discovered the elderly woman’s Buick there.
Law enforcement identified the registered owner as Oldroyd and found her dead in her home in Lyman on Wednesday evening, DPS said.
The spokesperson said investigators believe that after Miller abandoned that car, he took a vehicle that belonged to one of the other victims — described in the documents as a Subaru Outback — and fled.
The husband of one of the victims was able to track the location of the Subaru’s key fob, according to the documents. Authorities tracked the vehicle to Pagosa Springs, Colorado, where Miller was arrested at 2:45 a.m. Thursday.
Law enforcement used automated license plate readers and a theft-recovery system in the vehicle to track Miller as he fled before arresting him Colorado, where the stolen Subaru was also found, the department said.
The investigation into the killings continues, the Utah Department of Public Safety said Thursday night.
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