Editor’s note: An update to this story can be found here.
West Valley City • Five members of the same family — including three children — were found dead inside a home in West Valley City on Tuesday in what police are calling a homicide.
West Valley City police spent the night “gathering and analyzing evidence” in the case, the department reported Wednesday morning on its X account. Police have not yet established a timeline of events for the killings, and plan to provide updates later in the day.
Police said Tuesday they received a call from a concerned family member of a woman who lived on the 3700 block of Oxford Way on Monday night, saying they were unable to get in touch with the resident.
Then on Tuesday, the woman in question didn’t show up for work. The same family member then went to the woman’s house and entered through the garage, where they found a 17-year-old who was injured from a gunshot wound.
Police responded and entered the home, where they discovered five people deceased. They were a 42-year-old man, a 38-year-old woman, an 11-year-old boy, a 9-year-old girl, and a 2-year-old girl.
The teen in the garage was taken to a hospital. His condition was not known Tuesday evening.
“This is far beyond anything routine,” Vainuku told reporters Tuesday night. She said that, before these deaths, West Valley City had only seen four homicides in all of 2024, “so this more than doubles that number.”
(Chris Samuels | The Salt Lake Tribune) Investigators search a home on Oxford Way in West Valley City, Tuesday, Dec. 17, 2024. Police say five members of a family were found dead Tuesday afternoon, with another found injured.
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