Police in West Valley City and Taylorsville over the weekend asked for help finding people at two parties held six weeks apart. A teenager died at each.
A July 14 shooting killed 19-year-old Neko Jardine in West Valley City. Then, Saturday night, police in Taylorsville found Kaylissa Oleary, 17, dead at a party there.
There’s no indication the two cases are related.
In the Oleary case, police received a call about 10:20 p.m. of a shooting at a home near 3100 W. Havea Circle. Oleary was already dead, Unified Police Department Sgt. Melody Gray said.
Detectives don’t know who had the gun or who fired it, Gray said. They are trying to find witnesses while waiting for an autopsy report that might explain more about how Oleary died.
“We are investigating this as a suspicious death because we do not know exactly who had that gun," Gray told FOX 13. “We don’t know if she had it.
“The partygoers fled the scene," Gray added, “so we haven’t been able to talk to all of the people that were there."
Oleary’s car went missing after the shooting, but UPD tweeted Monday that it had been found.
Oleary was a senior at Copper Hills High School, FOX 13 reported. Anyone with information in the case can call UPD at 801-743-7000.
Jardine’s death is the only unsolved homicide in West Valley City this year. On Saturday, police issued a news release saying search warrants had been executed in the case, but detectives still need to find the 15 to 20 people who may have been outside where Jardine was shot, along with the 30 to 40 people who may have been inside the home at the time. Many of partygoers fled without talking to police.
Jardine was shot in the neck, chest and torso at a home near 5600 West and 4360 South. He later died at a hospital.
According to police, two cars drove up to the house shortly after midnight, and an altercation began between the occupants of the vehicles and people at the house. About a dozen shots were fired. In addition to Jardine, a 17-year-old was shot multiple times in the leg and an 18-year-old was cut during the fight. Both were treated at a hospital and released.
Anyone with information about the shooting can call West Valley City police at 801-840-4000 or leave a message on the Tip-a-Cop line, 801-963-3459.
Editor’s note • The Salt Lake Tribune and FOX 13 are content-sharing partners.
