Two South Dakota men are in custody after police found the body of a woman who had been shot in the head in the trunk of their car at a Utah gas station.
On Sunday just before 1 p.m., officers from the Juab County Sheriff’s Office and Nephi Police Department responded to a report of a fight at a gas station in Mona, which is about 34 miles south of Provo.
When officers arrived, they found two 26-year-old men fighting, a woman who had been traveling with them and the body of a second woman in the trunk underneath bags and clothing. She “appeared” to have a single gunshot wound to the head, according to a probable cause statement.
According to the officers, both men appeared to be “under the influence of alcohol and/or drugs.”
One of the men and the woman told police they were on their way to Las Vegas with the victim’s body. One of the two men “confessed to the homicide,” according to the probable cause statement, adding that during the drive to Utah “he was using methamphetamine heavily” — and that he “felt weird and thought it was maybe the drugs.”
The suspect added that “he shot her and after that everything went blank.”
Both men have been booked into the Juab County jail — one for investigation of homicide and desecration of a human body, the other for obstruction of justice and desecration of a human body. They’re being held without bail.
The Salt Lake Tribune generally does not name suspects until they have been formally charged.
