Tanya Weber (June 26, 1965, Logan): the seventeen-year-old high school student was strangled to death on June 26, 1965, after returning from a wedding reception; in 2024, DNA testing on her clothing allowed the Logan City Police Department to officially close the case and identify a local suspect who died by suicide shortly after the 1965 crime, Owen Hodges Kimball.
Murders Linked to Myron Lance and Walter Kelbach (December 1966): I am going to touch on the murders of Lance and Kelbach as a whole: in December 1966, parolees Myron Lance and Walter Kelbach committed a brutal, multi-victim murder and robbery spree across Salt Lake County, leaving six people dead over a five-day period. The six total victims included gas station attendants, a taxicab driver, and patrons at a local establishment. On December 21, 1966, the pair entered the tavern, shot and killed patrons James Sisemore, Fred Lillie, and Beverly Mace, and wounded another before fleeing with stolen cash. Police apprehended Lance and Kelbach after a shootout at a downtown bar that killed three others at a roadblock roughly three hours after the final shootings at a roadblock near Parleys Canyon. In 1967, a jury convicted both men of first-degree murder, which resulted in the death penalty, however when the US Supreme Court struck down capital punishment in 1972, their sentences were changed to life in prison. In 1968, both prisoners briefly participated in a major maximum-security breakout from the Utah State Prison, but were quickly recaptured. Myron Lance died of natural causes in 2010 at age of sixty-nine, and Walter Kelbach died in prison in 2018.
Myrtle Bear Pete: (found on February 4, 1967, the Skull Valley Indian Reservation in Tooele County): the remains of the twenty-five-year-old Native American woman were discovered on Skull Valley Road, roughly three-hundred yards from her home in Tooele County, UT. Despite her body showing signs of severe trauma (including a broken arm, shoulder, and potential broken neck), detectives and medical experts at the time determined her death was either an accident or exposure related to a being hit by a car.
Fontella Galloway (found on June 19, 1969, Roosevelt): Galloway’s remains were found at her residence in Roosevelt; her cause of death was suffocation.
Gladys Powers (July 22, 1969, SLC): the victim was found by her husband at approximately 5:00 PM on July 22, 1969: she had been laying on the floor in their hallway, with a fork stuck in her chest.
Loretta Jones (July 30, 1970, Price): the twenty-three-year-old single mother was brutally murdered in her home in Price, which was discovered by her four-year-old daughter. Though a prime suspect named Thomas Edward Egley was arrested shortly after, charges were dismissed due to a lack of evidence; after forty-six years, the case was reopened, her body was exhumed for modern forensic review, and Egley finally pled guilty to her murder in 2016.
Dale Jean Langston (April 11, 1970, Layton): twenty-four-year-old Dale Jean Langston and her two young children, Christine Jeffs (age 6) and Troy Don Langston (age 3), were brutally murdered in their home on Marilyn Drive in Layton, Utah. Key details surrounding the infamous Layton cold case include: The victims were found inside their residence in a pool of blood. Dale Jean Langston had been sexually assaulted and stabbed more than 33 times. Both children were also violently attacked; Christine’s throat was slashed, and Troy was stabbed repeatedly and disemboweled. At the time of the murders, Dale Jean’s husband, Don Langston, was away on a trip to Detroit with his brothers and a friend.
The 1970 Washington County ‘Jane Doe’ (October 1970, Gunlock State Park): in October 1970, Gunlock State Park a road crew employee discovered the badly decomposed, skeletal remains of a woman off Gunlock Road, approximately eighteen miles west of St. George near what is now Gunlock State Park. Her remains were found with a few strands of blonde or light-colored hair, and she had been deceased for months to years before her body was found. An autopsy conducted by the Utah Medical Examiner’s Office left the cause of death as undetermined; unable to identify her, officials interred the woman in an unmarked grave with a headstone reading ‘unknown’ at the Hurricane City Cemetery, where she had remained for over five decades. In January 2026, the Washington County Sheriff’s Office announced that its Investigations Division had officially reopened the case.
Johanna Tabitha Virginia Strong Leatherbury (disappeared on August 20, 1971, Olympia): the seventeen-year-old was a recent graduate of Olympus High School, and on the night she disappeared, had been hanging out at a popular teenage gathering spot known as ‘The Complex’ in SLC; witnesses last reported seeing her in a vehicle with two men and several other passengers.
Carolyn Yvonne Kingston (September 2, 1971, SLC): thirty-year-old Carolyn was a clerk at Natters’ Market in Salt Lake City, and on the afternoon of September 2, 1971, an armed gunman entered the established with the intention of committing a robbery; she had her two small children with her at the time and it’s possible she struggled with the man. She and a deliveryman were both shot; the suspect attempted to shoot a second deliveryman, but the gun did not go off. Carolyn died later as a result of her injuries.
Ann Marie Hammer-Woodward (March 2, 1973, Moab): forty-six-year-old Woodward owned and operated Woody’s Tavern (along with her husband, Leslie H. ‘Woody,’ a local establishment where she was killed after closing time. The case remained unsolved for over five decades until it was officially solved by the Moab Police Department: in May 2024, the results positively identified her killer as Douglas K. Chudomelka, a twenty-five-year-old local mine worker whose DNA had been heavily present on the inside of her pants and on her shirt buttons.
Jennifer Lee Klein (May 25, 1974, Moab): Klein was last seen that Memorial Day Weekend with her family at a campground approximately ten miles north of Moab; her father had gone back to the camper for something, and she was playing in the sand. Everyone’s attention was diverted because of a dogfight and when Jennifer’s mother and five-year-old brother turned around, she was gone. It is believed that she may have fallen into the river, but that has not been confirmed.
Nancy Perry-Baird (July 4, 1975, SLC): the twenty-three-year-old single mother disappeared on Independence Day while working at a gas station on Highway 89 in Layton.
Nancy Wilcox (October 1, 1974, Holladay): the sixteen-year-old vanished in Salt Lake County on October 1, 1974. She is believed to be an early victim of Ted Bundy; her body has never been recovered.
Laura Ann Aime (October 31, 1974, Lehi): the seventeen-year-old disappeared on October 31, 1974, from Lehi, Utah, and her body was later found in American Fork Canyon. Advanced DNA testing officially confirmed Ted Bundy as her killer in April 2026.
Susan Curtis (June 27, 1975, Provo): the fifteen-year-old disappeared while attending a youth conference at Brigham Young University in Provo; she is also highly suspected to be a victim of Ted Bundy.
Debra Diane Smith (February 1976, SLC): seventeen-year-old Debbie’s remains were discovered in April 1976 near the Salt Lake International Airport; her death remains an open cold case investigated by the Salt Lake City Police Department. Historically, investigators and researchers have suspected she may have been a victim of Ted Bundy.
Joy Kathleen ‘Kathy’ Jones-Harmon (March 2, 1976, SLC): Kathy had been out with a friend at the Better Days Bar and left the establishment alone around midnight; investigators located the coat she had worn to the bar inside her apartment, which made them believe she made it home safely that night before being targeted. She was reported missing by her parents after she failed to show up for work the following morning. Four days later a hiker discovered her partially clothed body on the still-frozen slopes between Emigration Canyon and Parleys Canyon, just north of I-80; forensic evidence indicated she had been beaten, raped, and strangled to death.
Orthea Duncan Wamsley (found on May 5, 1976, Neola): Wamsley was abducted from her POE of ‘The Neola Store’ during the middle of a shift; her remains were found north of Neola in a wooded area. Her hands had been bound behind her back, and she had been shot in the head.
Paula R. Scartezina (June 24. 1976, Carbon County): the victim was found deceased in her bed by her husband.
Valaine Briggs (August 18, 1977, SLC):the twenty-one-year-old left her apartment in Salt Lake City to walk to a neighborhood convenience store and never returned. Her body was found shortly after in a remote area of Morgan County. Decades later, her case remains heavily active with investigators continually checking for updated DNA technology leads.
Sharon Lecia Schollmeyer (found on December 5, 1977, SLC): the sixteen-year-old had been found dead inside her Salt Lake City apartment, and had been blindfolded, gagged, and placed in her bathtub. Decades later, advanced DNA testing of the gag identified the building’s former manager, Patrick McCabe, who was subsequently charged with her murder.
Phyllis Ady (disappeared on December 13,1977, Cedar City): fifteen-year-old Ady was reported as missing on December 13,1977, and had been living with her Aunt and Uncle at the time in Cedar City. Her Aunt dropped her off at Hermie’s Drive-In December 12th, where she met an acquaintance she was not seen after that night. On July 2, 1980, skeletal remains were found in an old carrot pit beneath a wooden trap door covered by a mound of dirt in a backyard in Cedar City; they were later identified as Phyllis Ady.
Corazon Cabug Frandsen (February 4, 1978, Unified): the twenty-six-year-old went to dinner with her in-laws on the evening of February 4, 1978, and afterward she picked up a few groceries and then proceeded home to her apartment located at 5272 South Cobble Creek Road. It appears she was first attacked as she got out of her white two-door Mercury Cougar in the parking lot of the apartment complex, and she was found the following morning in the bushes adjacent to the parking lot of a nearby church. She had been severely beaten and was unconscious at the time she was found; she died a short time later at the hospital as a result of blunt force trauma injuries and exposure to the elements.
Marla Rae Scharp (June 29, 1978, Provo): the twenty-one-year-old Brigham Young University student was raped and strangled in her Provo apartment while her roommates were away for only thirty minutes; her case was reopened in late 2019 after it was revealed a previous confession by Henry Lee Lucas was entirely fabricated.
Linda Sue Peterson (disappeared on September 16, 1978, Murray): five and 1/2 months pregnant Peterson was reported missing to the Murray Police Department by her husband, William on September 30, 1978: he said that she had stopped by his work (where he was a pharmacist) and told him she planned a last-minute trip to Kentucky with two unknown ‘girlfriends’ (he said he didn’t know them but strongly thinks one of their names was Susan); he seemingly accepted this news and gave her $300 in cash, and made sure that she also had her master card with her. The credit card was never used after she disappearance and Phil died in 2013.
Patricia Ann Barrett (September 25, 1978, SLC): Patricia was forty-five-years-old at the time of her disappearance, and it is believed she had only been in the Salt Lake area a couple of months prior to vanishing. She was originally from the Texas area had been travelling in the year-and-a-half prior to her death and it’s highly possible she was in the south-east portion of the US (including Texas, Oklahoma, and Louisiana). Contact with Patricia indicated she may have been homeless prior to her disappearance, and she had been diagnosed with schizophrenia. The last known contact with Barrett was with her children on August 31, 1978, and her nude body was found wrapped in carpeting in the old Salt Lake Beach area near the I-80 by a motorist on October 25, 1978; her cause of death was unable to be determined but may have been strangulation, and her time of death was estimated to be approximately one month prior to being found. The body remained unidentified until June of 2012 when DNA testing confirmed her identity as that of Patricia Barrett.
Mona Lee Ulibarri (disappeared on April 17, 1979, SLC): the victim went to Billy-O’s Bar sometime in the evening on April 17,1979; she had been drinking and playing pool. No one remembers seeing her leave the bar that night and her Volkswagen Bug was found the next day close to the bar; its interior had been incinerated. Ulibarriwas found in the Jordan river twelve days later.
Mary Katherine Miller (June 20, 1979, SLC): Mary was ‘emotional and upset’ at the time she disappeared and was last seen by her daughter in Provo. Her car was located at the face of Timpanogos, it was found stuck. She had a bridge on her upper front teeth.
Sandra Matott (disappeared on July 10, 1979, SLC): the thirty-seven-year-old mother vanished from Salt Lake City; her husband, Warren reported her missing eight days later. In August 2021 her identity was finally uncovered after advanced forensic DNA testing identified her as the ‘Millard County Jane Doe,’ who had been discovered on August 19, 1979 after a hunter named Leonard Watts discovered skeletal remains covered in debris near the Interstate 15 Cove Fort exit in rural Millard County; an exact cause of death was never determined. No one was ever convicted or officially named by police as the killer of Matott, however her husband and Henry Lee Lucas were considered to be the two main suspects; both men died before any charges could be filed.
Rachael Arenaz (last seen alive on October 1, 1979, SLC): on May 8, 1980 two young boys out riding horses stumbled upon the remains of Arenaz lying in an irrigation ditch at 2100 North and 4000 West; her time of death was estimated to be anywhere from six months to one year prior.
Dawn Marie Davis (found on October 23, 1979, South SLC): Dawn’s body was found in her apartment after no one heard from her for about two weeks prior to the discovery.
Another Bundy Blog: My Adventures around the Pacific Northwest (and everywhere else). 