Wayne County residents gathered at homes, street corners and a trailhead to remember three women killed last week, honoring them with pink ribbons, photos and public expressions of grief after authorities said a stranger attacked them in two separate places.
The mourning has unfolded alongside a fast-moving criminal case that has shaken one of Utah’s smallest rural communities. Authorities say 22-year-old Ivan Miller of Iowa was arrested in Colorado less than a day after the killings and now faces three counts of aggravated murder in Utah. Investigators have said there is no known evidence linking the three women to one another before the attacks, a detail that has deepened the shock in Wayne County and made the killings feel, to many residents, both random and intimate.
The public timeline began to take shape on Feb. 28, when Utah public safety officials say Miller’s vehicle was disabled after a collision with an elk in the Wayne County area. On March 4 at 4:25 p.m., the Wayne County Emergency Communications Center got a call from the husbands of two women who had gone to hike near Teasdale Road and Cocks Comb and had not returned. Utah Department of Public Safety officials said the men found their wives dead near the trailhead. In the hours that followed, investigators confirmed the deaths of Linda Dewey, 65, and her niece Natalie Graves, 34, and found a suspicious vehicle from Lyman abandoned nearby. Officers then went to the Lyman home connected to that vehicle and found Margaret Oldroyd, 86, dead there. By early March 5, after tracking a stolen Subaru through Utah and into Colorado, officers arrested Miller in Pagosa Springs. In Lyman, neighbor Mary Sorenson said the violence left residents “overwhelmed and shocked, in disbelief, sad, angry.”
Investigators have released only part of what they believe happened, and many of the most serious details remain allegations in charging documents. Prosecutors say Miller stayed in a shed on Oldroyd’s property, entered her home and killed her before taking her car. Court documents then describe him driving that vehicle to the Cockscomb Trailhead area, deciding he wanted another one and attacking Dewey and Graves to steal a Subaru Outback. Utah public safety officials have said there is no known evidence that the aunt and niece had any connection to Oldroyd, and Lt. Cameron Roden told reporters there was no indication the women were targeted for any reason other than convenience. The trail where the two hikers were found is used mostly by locals and is partly shielded from the road. Authorities have not publicly answered every question about Miller’s movements in the days before March 4, when he reached Oldroyd’s property, or whether anyone saw him near the trailhead before the killings.
As the legal case came together, the community response moved quickly into public view. In Lyman, Sorenson and two other women tied pink ribbons around town to remember Oldroyd and the two hikers. Sorenson said the group wanted to honor “our friend and neighbor” and remember all three women for their kindness. Residents described Oldroyd as quiet, helpful and deeply rooted in the area. In Torrey, Mayor Mickey Wright said he and his wife were friends with one of the victims and described a painful 24 hours after the sheriff’s office urged residents to leave lights on, lock doors and stay inside while officers searched for the suspect. Schools and county offices closed during the manhunt. By Monday, students had returned to class, but Wayne County School District Superintendent Randy Shelley said the fear had not vanished completely. Community wellness events were scheduled Monday evening at Wayne High School and the Wayne Community Health Center to offer free mental health support as residents tried to process what had happened.
The victims’ families have also begun shaping how they want the women to be remembered. In a statement released after officials identified the dead, the family of Dewey and Graves said the two women were “bonding over the beauty of a hike in one of their favorite places on Earth” when they were killed. The family described Dewey as the heart of the family and Graves as “joy, sunshine and beauty embodied.” Relatives asked the public and the media to respect their privacy and encouraged mourners to use the Cockscomb Trailhead as a place to memorialize the two women. Photos were placed there Friday. Oldroyd’s death has also drawn deeply personal tributes. A neighbor of 20 years told The Associated Press that she was “the sweetest woman you’d ever meet,” someone who tended her yard, visited with neighbors and lived the kind of quiet life that often defines small rural communities. Those remembrances have given the case a second storyline, one centered not on the suspect’s path across state lines but on the ordinary lives that were cut short.
The criminal case is still at an early stage. Miller has been charged in Utah with three counts of aggravated murder, but he was being held in Archuleta County, Colorado, after his arrest there. News outlets that covered his first Colorado court appearance reported that his lawyer said he would fight extradition rather than waive return to Utah. Utah public safety officials have said an arrest warrant has been issued on probable cause, while the broader investigation into the killings continues. That means prosecutors still must bring Miller back to Utah before the case can move into arraignment and later court hearings in Wayne County. Authorities also have not publicly released a full account of forensic evidence from the home and trailhead scenes. For residents, the next milestones are now clear: extradition, formal court appearances in Utah and a fuller public record of what investigators say happened between the disabled truck on Feb. 28 and the arrests and memorials that followed less than a week later.
What remains in Wayne County now is a mixture of grief, vigilance and a desire to hold onto the memory of the women rather than only the violence of their deaths. Wright said the community would never forget what happened, but he hoped it would heal. Sorenson, standing beside ribbons in Lyman, spoke through tears about wanting the victims remembered “for their kindness and their love.” That has become the public language of mourning across the county, from the homes in Lyman to the red rock country near Torrey. Even in a case dominated by allegations of random killing and interstate flight, the most visible response has been local and personal: neighbors tying ribbons, family members posting photos, students returning to school and residents trying to reclaim places that had suddenly become crime scenes.
As of Monday, the suspect remained in custody in Colorado, the Utah charges were pending and memorials continued in Wayne County. The next major step will come when extradition is resolved and the aggravated murder case formally shifts into a Utah courtroom.
Author note: Last updated March 9, 2026.