A chilling triple homicide that stunned two quiet Utah towns ended with the arrest of a 22-year-old Iowa man more than 300 miles away after investigators pieced together clues from license plate readers, surveillance cameras and a victim’s key fob.
Ivan Miller, of Blakesburg, Iowa, has been charged with aggravated murder in the deaths of three women — an 86-year-old grandmother and two hikers, in what authorities say was a desperate attempt to steal vehicles and money to return home.
The violence began Wednesday in Lyman, a tiny rural town of fewer than 300 residents. According to prosecutors, Miller broke into the home of Margaret Oldroyd, 86, and waited for her to return.
When she sat down to watch television, he allegedly shot her in the back of the head and stole her Buick.
Investigators say Miller later told them he did not like the vehicle and decided to look for another one.
He drove about 13 miles toward the nearby tourist town of Torrey, close to Capitol Reef National Park, where he spotted two women getting out of a white Subaru Outback near a trailhead.
Court documents allege Miller shot 34-year-old Natalie Graves in the chest and then shot her aunt, Linda Dewey, 65.
When Dewey was still moving, he stabbed her multiple times before fleeing in their Subaru. Prosecutors say he also attempted to hide the bodies in a dry creek bed.
When the women failed to return from their hike, their husbands went searching and discovered their bodies near the trail. The stolen Buick was found abandoned nearby.
Investigators soon traced the vehicle to Oldroyd’s home in Lyman, where they later discovered her body in a cellar beneath a shed.
Authorities then launched a multi-state search for the missing Subaru. A sheriff’s deputy used license plate reader technology to track the vehicle’s movement, while Graves’ husband used a mobile phone app to locate her key fob.
The signal was detected Wednesday night in Farmington, New Mexico, about 300 miles from the crime scene. Around the same time, police in Colorado received alerts from the Flock Safety camera network indicating the Subaru had passed through the Four Corners region.
Durango police alerted nearby agencies, and officers in Pagosa Springs soon located the abandoned Subaru in the town centre.
After an overnight manhunt, authorities arrested Miller early Thursday in Pagosa Springs. He was carrying a handgun and a large knife at the time, officials said.
According to investigators, Miller told them he committed the killings to steal cars and credit cards after hitting an elk earlier in the week and losing his own vehicle.
The three victims had no known connection to one another.
The killing of Oldroyd has particularly shaken residents of Lyman. Her neighbour of two decades, Randy Jones, described her as “the sweetest woman you’d ever meet,” recalling how she carefully tended her flowers and often thanked neighbours with homemade cakes.
“Out here in rural counties, we all take care of each other,” Jones said. “This is just heartbreaking.”
