Ivan Miller is an alleged killer from Iowa who has been charged with three murders in Utah
According to police reports 911 received a call from two men who had discovered the bodies of their wives on a hiking trail near Torrey Utah. Soon police would find the body of an elderly woman a couple of towns over.
Soon police would learn that one of the victims vehicles had been stolen and a massive manhunt was underway. The car vehicle was eventually tracked down in Colorado and Ivan Miller would be arrested
Police in Utah are saying that Ivan Miller had no connection to any of the victims
Ivan Miller will now have to face three counts of murder in Utah
Ivan Miller News
An Iowa man accused of killing a southern Utah woman, stealing her vehicle and driving it to a nearby trailhead and killing two women who were hiking together before fleeing in one of their vehicles has been charged with aggravated murder Thursday afternoon.
Ivan Miller, 22, was booked into the Archuleta County Jail in Colorado on Thursday morning on suspicion of carrying a concealed weapon, a misdemeanor, according to online jail records. He was charged with three counts of aggravated murder Thursday afternoon.
Miller is scheduled to make his first court appearance in Colorado on Friday afternoon. He is being represented by the Colorado Public Defender’s Office.
The series of events began late Wednesday afternoon in small ranching and farming communities near Capitol Reef National Park in Wayne County, Utah, Lt. Cameron Roden of the Utah Highway Patrol said Thursday.
Authorities were alerted to the killings by the husbands of two women who had gone hiking together near the park. The husbands went to the trailhead looking for them and found one vehicle missing and another they did not recognize, Roden said. Investigators identified the owner of the unrecognized vehicle and discovered the first woman killed — at a brick home in Lyman, Utah, approximately 10 miles from the trail.
The victims were in their 30s and 60s — the two hikers — and in her 80s, the woman at the home. Authorities have not publicly identified any of the three women. Officials said the two hikers had no connection to the woman killed at the home in Wayne County.
According to court documents, Miller told police he saw a Buick at the elderly woman’s residence, waited for her to leave, then entered her home and waited for her behind a door. He then allegedly shot her in the back of the head with a 1911 handgun while she was sitting down watching television. Miller told police he moved her to an outbuilding and left her body in the basement.
Miller told police he did not like the car and wanted to find another vehicle. He parked the Buick near a trail where he saw two women get out of a white Subaru Outback. According to court documents, Miller allegedly shot the younger woman in the chest and shot the other woman twice in the body. When she was still moving, he allegedly stabbed her multiple times. Miller told police he dragged both women to a dried-up creek bed and laid them next to one another.
A ranger discovered drops of blood from the road to where the two women’s bodies were located at the trail. A 20-gauge shotgun shell was found behind the Buick at the scene, along with three .45 caliber shell casings.
Miller told police he took the victims’ credit cards and used one to purchase gas. He said his intent was to return to Iowa.
When asked by police what he did with the knife he used, Miller produced the knife during the interview. He told police it “had to be done” but that he did not like doing it.
After the killings, authorities said Miller stole one of the victims’ vehicles and fled. The husband of the woman who owned the missing white Subaru Outback tracked the vehicle’s key fob to Farmington, New Mexico. Officers then located the vehicle near Durango, Colorado, and observed it at a gas station in Pagosa Springs, Colorado.
The vehicle was later found abandoned in the 400 block of Pagosa Street in Pagosa Springs. Police say Miller fled on foot. Officers found a magazine to a handgun with .45 caliber ammunition and 20-gauge shotgun shells that matched ammunition found at the trail scene.
After a short search, Miller was taken into custody. Officers found a Rock Island brand 1911 model .45 caliber pistol on him, matching the .45 caliber casings located at the trail scene. Police also found debit cards, a credit card, and an identification card belonging to one of the victims in Miller’s wallet.
Authorities used license plate readers and vehicle tracking services to follow Miller’s path from Utah through northern Arizona and into Pagosa Springs, Roden said.
There is no indication Ivan Miller had any connection to the victims, Roden said. Investigators believe the suspect targeted the women for no other reason than “convenience,” Roden said.
Investigators were still looking into when Ivan Miller arrived in Utah and what he was doing prior to the killings. The Utah State Bureau of Investigation and the Utah Crime Lab are supporting the homicide investigation. Multiple scenes are being processed in Torrey, Utah, and the surrounding area, Roden said.
Before Ivan Miller was taken into custody, residents in Wayne County were asked to remain vigilant and nearby schools were closed Thursday. Officials said there are no ongoing threats to the public.
According to a prior criminal complaint, Ivan Miller was arrested in December after the Iowa Department of Natural Resources said he broke into a cabin at a campground at Lake Wapello State Park.
Iowa man charged with aggravated murder in deaths of 3 Utah women after multi-state manhunt
