Suspect identified as Ivan Miller, 22, found after he was tracked in one of the victims’ vehicles, authorities say
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Authorities have charged a 22-year-old man with aggravated murder in the killings of three women found dead in Utah on Wednesday following a search that extended into three states.
The suspect has been identified as Ivan Miller of Blakesburg, Iowa.
Miller is accused of killing the women, whom authorities say were strangers to him, in two locations before fleeing. He was taken into custody early on Thursday morning after law enforcement “tracked him in one of the victims’ vehicles”, the Utah public safety department said in a statement.
“The vehicle was tracked through southern Utah into northern Arizona and eventually into Colorado,” authorities said, noting that Colorado law enforcement located the vehicle abandoned in Pagosa Springs, Colorado. After a brief search, Miller was taken into custody “without incident”.
Miller was scheduled to make his first court appearance in Colorado on Friday afternoon.
Authorities believe Miller killed a woman in her home in southern Utah on Wednesday afternoon and then drove her vehicle to a trailhead near Capitol Reef national park, where he killed two women hiking together. He fled in one of their vehicles.
It does not appear Miller had any connection to the victims, said Lt Cameron Roden, a spokesperson for the Utah highway patrol.
Miller had been on a cross-country road trip at the time of the killings, the New York Times reported. A brother told the newspaper that Miller had significant mental health issues, but that he was shocked by the violence.
In an interview with police, Miller said he had hit an elk during his travels days earlier and sold his truck. He is said to have admitted to the killings, according to court documents, telling police that he needed money. Miller said that he did not like to do it, but that it “had to be done”, according to court documents.
The Utah public safety department said the investigation is continuing while “members of the Utah state bureau of investigation and the Utah crime lab process two crime scenes in the Lyman and Torrey area”.
In a news release earlier on Thursday, the Utah public safety department said that authorities received a call on Wednesday afternoon reporting that two women had been found dead on a hiking trail. During the course of the investigation, a third woman was found dead at a residence in Wayne county.
Officials said the first woman was in her 30s, the second in her 60s and the third in her 80s. The news release states that the victims’ identifies are being withheld while next of kin notifications are under way.
The husbands of the two women found dead on a hiking trail contacted police late on Wednesday after they found their wives’ bodies, Roden said. Investigators discovered the first victim after identifying the owner of a vehicle left in a lot near the trail.
The Utah public safety department said that it is investigating the case alongside local law enforcement agencies, and had said that “multiple scenes are being investigated and processed in Torrey and the surrounding areas”.
The Wayne county sheriff’s office urged local residents in a statement on social media on Wednesday evening to “take extra precautions, keep lights on, keep doors locked, remain home or with others this evening if possible”.
“Multiple law enforcement agencies are currently in the area,” the office said.
The Wayne county school district also announced on Wednesday night that “out of an abundance of caution and concern for student and public safety” its schools would be closed on Thursday and Friday “due to unfolding events in the county”.
“We will also have counselors in place to support students when we are back in session next week,” the school district said. “We will communicate updates as things unfold.”
The Associated Press contributed reporting