Juvenile taken into custody in Toquerville homicide investigation

Home of the woman who sheriff's deputies found dead from an apparent homicide, Toquerville, Utah, March 19, 2014 | Photo by Mori Kessler, St. George News

TOQERVILLE – The county sheriff’s office is investigating the apparent homicide of an elderly woman found dead in her home early Wednesday morning. The woman was found by sheriff’s deputies investigating a nearby burglary. A juvenile described as a “person of interest” related to the woman’s death has since been taken into custody.

Just after midnight, Wednesday, sheriff’s deputies responded to a report of a residential burglary in Toquerville, the Washington County Sheriff’s Office said in a statement. Firearms and property had been reported stolen from the home and the deputies began investigating the incident.

While searching the area for possible suspects, deputies received a tip that a possible suspect was seen buying gas in Washington City. The tipster also provided a description of the person’s vehicle and the license plate number. The vehicle was found to belong to a person living in Toquerville after the plate number was checked.

“When deputies responded to the address of the registered owner of the vehicle, they found the registered owner had been the victim of a homicide,” the sheriff’s office said. The victim has been described as an elderly woman.

Around 12 hours after the investigation began, sheriff’s detectives located and took into custody a male juvenile at about 12:15 p.m. He is being called a “person of interest” and is believed to be connected to the death of the Toquerville woman.

Along with taking the juvenile into custody, all firearms originally reported missing have also been recovered by investigators.

We’ve been working on (this case) all night and all day,” Washington County Sheriff Cory Pulsipher said. He also credited the hard work his staff has done in the case thus far. “They have worked tirelessly,” he said.

As the investigation continues, neither the names of the victim or the person of interest is being released by the sheriff’s office at this time.

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Copyright St. George News, SaintGeorgeUtah.com LLC, 2014, all rights reserved.

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6 Comments

  • S. Carter March 19, 2014 at 7:58 pm

    It’s about time you guys reported this story! I had to resort to The Rectum to read about this. What a terrible tragedy for the victim.

    • Bob March 20, 2014 at 8:26 am

      The Salt Lake tribune had the story hours before any local paper, the people of Washington County are always hiding stories from the public that involve crime.

  • bsmeter March 20, 2014 at 10:59 am

    Yep, it’s a right wing conspiracy to cover up the fact that guns, not people, kill people. It must be the damn Mormons fault……or possibly gay marriage.

  • Shane March 20, 2014 at 11:55 am

    890 KDXU was reporting this early yesterday.

  • Gwilson March 20, 2014 at 8:35 pm

    58 years old is elderly now? Yikes!

  • Curious Cat March 24, 2014 at 10:58 pm

    What’s the deal with the neck brace and the cut on his throat???

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