Capitol Reef National Park Visitors Face Renewed Fear After Utah Triple Killing
Friday at 9: 12 a. m. ET, visitors to Capitol Reef National Park and other Utah trails are confronting a new reality: a place family members called a “safe sanctuary” is now linked to an active homicide investigation after three women were found dead on a trail.
Immediate security concerns at Capitol Reef National Park and nearby trailheads
Families and community members said the trail where two of the victims were found had been “one of their favorite places on Earth, ” cherished and considered safe, a status now disrupted by the killings. Linda Dewey, 65, and Natalie Graves, 34, were found near a trail head after their husbands discovered their bodies and called authorities. The deaths have turned a popular hiking spot into the scene of a criminal probe spanning multiple locations in South Central Utah.
Ivan Miller charged; how authorities say they traced his movements
Charging documents filed Thursday allege that Ivan Miller, 22, confessed to the killings and told investigators he “did it because he needed money” after a string of events that began with hitting an elk in Loa, Utah, selling his truck to a local tow company and staying at a hotel for several days. Prosecutors charged Miller with aggravated murder in the deaths of Dewey and Graves and in the fatal shooting of Margaret Oldroyd, 86.
Authorities say the three bodies were found at two locations. The documents allege Miller shot Oldroyd in the head as she sat down to watch television in her home in Lyman, then took her Buick. He later encountered Graves and Dewey on a nearby trail and shot them; the documents allege he stabbed Dewey when she continued to move. After abandoning the Buick, he allegedly took a Subaru that belonged to Dewey or Graves.
Investigators arrested Miller hundreds of miles east in Pagosa Springs, Colorado, after tracking the location of a stolen key fob. Scott Van Zandt, the public defender representing Miller, said at a court hearing Friday that his client does not want to speak to police or media. The arrest and the tracing of the key fob linked the highway and hotel stops with the killings on the trail.
Families speak out and the regional community response
, family representatives described Dewey as a wife, mother, grandmother and sister and said she was “the heart of our family. ” The family called Graves “joy, sunshine and beauty embodied” and said both women had been “bonding over the beauty of a hike” when they were killed. Oldroyd’s relatives could not be reached for comment, the documents note.
For now, the killings have prompted mourning and questions across the communities where the victims lived and where the incidents occurred. The charged suspect is from Blakesburg, Iowa, while key scenes in the case include Lyman, Loa and the unnamed trail in South Central Utah where Dewey and Graves were discovered.
Closing: a recent court hearing Friday included the public defender’s statement that Miller does not want to speak; charging documents were filed Thursday. If Miller maintains silence, prosecutors will move forward with the aggravated murder charges and pretrial proceedings already reflected in the court record.
