A man was arrested in Colorado on Thursday, accused of killing three women in Utah in two separate incidents on Wednesday.
Sheriff’s deputies and local police in Pagosa Springs, Colorado, about 200 miles southwest of Denver were alerted to a purportedly stolen car linked to the case. A manhunt ensued after they found the car, and officers arrested suspect Ivan Miller, 22, at 2:41 a.m. local time Thursday, the Pagosa Springs Police Department said.
The Utah Department of Public Safety accuses Mr. Miller of killing two of the women on a hiking trail in Wayne County roughly 174 miles south of Salt Lake City and also of killing a third woman at a residence elsewhere in the county on Wednesday.
So far, Mr. Miller is facing charges of possessing concealed weapons in Colorado — the Pagosa Springs Police Department alleged that a hidden handgun and knife were found on his person when he was arrested.
Mr. Miller was linked to the Utah slayings after officers in Colorado spoke to him, law enforcement said. Lt. Cameron Roden, Utah Department of Public Safety spokesperson, told CNN that authorities believe Mr. Miller first murdered a woman in her 80s at her home, stole her car and then went to the hiking trail where he killed the other two women, friends in their 30s and 40s.
The elderly woman’s car was found by the trail by the officers who responded after the husbands of the two victims there reported their deaths, Lt. Roden told KSL-TV. The car found in Pagosa Springs belonged to one of the trail victims.
There is not a known connection between the elderly woman and the two other victims, none of whom have been publicly identified.
Mr. Roden told CNN that Mr. Miller, a resident of Blakesburg, Iowa, about 164 miles northeast of Kansas City, has “no connections to the victims and no connections to the area that we’re aware of.” Authorities are also trying to figure out how Mr. Miller got to the elderly victim’s house in the first place. Mr. Roden told KSL-TV that authorities in Utah were preparing to charge Mr. Miller in the killings so that he could be extradited back to Utah.
