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Search warrant: Willard homicide victim was bludgeoned, bound with ropes

An Ohio man killed earlier this month at a Box Elder County home was bludgeoned and bound with ropes, according to a search warrant affidavit unsealed this week.

The body of 27-year-old Cody Henderson was found by police on Nov. 1 in garage at a home near 400 South Main in Willard.

Chay Lance Blair, 25, who lived at the home, was arrested later that day in Idaho.

Blair has been charged in 1st District Court with first-degree felony murder and third-degree felony abuse of desecration of a dead human body.

Charging documents say that after Blair “intentionally” caused the victim‘s death, he “intentionally disturbed, moved, removed or concealed the victim’s body.”

Blair is scheduled to make his first court appearance on Tuesday.

The Box Elder County sheriff’s office had said that Henderson had become acquainted with Utah people while he was here for work, and had returned on personal business.

The search warrant affidavit says Willard Police Chief Jean Loveland went to Blair’s home after receiving a call from a woman who said her daughter got a call from Blair, who said he had killed Henderson and left his body in the garage.

The affidavit adds that Blair “had spent time with [Henderson] in the home and the garage just hours before [police responded to the home].”

Police collected a number of items from the home, including cinderblocks, a piece of brick, parachute cord, power cord and rope.

Henderson died from blunt force trauma, Loveland has said in a statement.