Suspect in Utah Killings of 3 Women Was Free on Iowa Burglary, Hunting Charges

A man accused of killing three women in Utah in order to steal their cars and credit cards was already known to police in Iowa: He had been arrested in that state on suspicion of breaking into a cabin and of illegally hunting in a game refuge some two months prior, court documents show.
Officials released Ivan Miller, 22, without bail back in January on the charges in Iowa, and he vowed to appear for the next court appearance.
But Miller missed the arraignment Friday because he was in jail in southern Colorado after authorities tracked him there in one of the stolen vehicles.
Miller is being represented in Colorado by the state public defender’s office. Justin Bogan, who heads the office in the judicial district that covers Pagosa Springs, declined to comment Thursday.
Meanwhile, out in southern Utah’s starkly beautiful desert country, friends and relatives of the women killed struggled to comprehend what authorities called a crime of “convenience.”
Miller had stolen their cars and credit cards because he needed to get back to Iowa, he told investigators in interviews outlined in court documents.
Two bodies at a trailhead, then a third at a home
The husbands of two victims found their wives dead near a trailhead after they didn’t return from a desert hike. The body of the third victim — a church-going woman who loved yardwork and kept a tidy yard — was found near her home.
There was no sign that Miller had any connection to the three, said Lt. Cameron Roden of the Utah Department of Public Safety.
Miller had been on the move often in recent days if not months. A few days before the killings, Miller hit an elk in the town of Loa.
He sold his pickup truck to the tow company, leaving him without a vehicle. After staying in hotels for a few days, Miller slept in the shed of resident Margaret Oldroyd, 86, in Lyman, Utah, just up the road from Torrey, outside Capitol Reef National Park in southern Utah, he allegedly told investigators.
Oldroyd’s Buick was found Wednesday at a trailhead about 10 miles (16 kilometers) from her house in the rural area of farms and ranches. There, authorities said Miller told them he saw two women get out of a Subaru and killed them before taking their car.
Linda Dewey, 65, and her niece Natalie Graves, 34, were killed and found in a dry creek bed near the trail mostly used by locals. Their husbands called 911 and waved down a ranger.
“Our family is dealing with the shock of the devastating loss of two members of our family who were bonding over the beauty of a hike in one of their favorite places on earth — cherished by them and the community, considered to be a safe sanctuary,” the family of Dewey and Graves said in a statement. “They were murdered. We cannot comprehend why this happened.”
The family described Dewey as a wife, mother, grandmother, daughter and sister who had many extended family members and friends all over the world.
“She was loved deeply and loved her family deeply. She was the heart of our family,” their statement said.
The family described Graves, a wife, daughter and sister, as “joy, sunshine and beauty embodied.”
Elderly victim remembered as sweet, with a tidy yard
Police linked the Buick to its owner, Oldroyd, whose body they found in a cellar under the shed on her property.
Next-door neighbor Randy Jones said he was shocked by the death of “the sweetest woman you’d ever meet.