Officials say the victims had no known connection to the suspect, who was later arrested in Colorado.
LYMAN, Utah — The killings of Margaret Oldroyd, Linda Dewey and Natalie Graves in Wayne County turned a stretch of rural Utah better known for ranch land and national park traffic into the center of a murder investigation that officials say unfolded in a matter of hours.
What made the case so jarring for residents was the apparent randomness of it. Authorities said the three women did not know the suspect and were killed on the same day in separate places inside one county. By Thursday, state investigators had identified Ivan Miller, 22, of Iowa as the suspect and said the women appear to have been attacked as he moved through the area looking for vehicles to steal. The result was both a homicide case and a deep shock for towns where major violent crime is rare.
Oldroyd, 86, was found dead at her home in Lyman after investigators connected a vehicle left near a second crime scene to her property. Dewey, 65, and Graves, 34, were found near the Cockscomb trail area after family members went looking for them when they did not come home from a hike. Authorities later said Dewey and Graves were relatives, an aunt and niece, and that neither woman had any known tie to Oldroyd. The women were not linked by friendship, work or travel plans. They were linked only by place, timing and the route investigators say the suspect took through Wayne County.
Public officials tried to describe the scale of the loss without overstating what they knew. Torrey Mayor Mickey Wright said the county was grieving and called the killings heartbreaking for a close-knit community. Lt. Cameron Roden of the Utah Highway Patrol said there was no sign the victims had been specifically chosen. “Other than just for convenience,” he said when asked about motive during an early briefing. That phrase shaped the public understanding of the case: three women living ordinary lives in a rural area, encountered separately by a man authorities say had no history in the community and no personal grievance against them.
The geography of the county sharpened that sense of vulnerability. Lyman, Torrey and the roads between them sit in a region of farms, small homes, trailheads and tourist routes leading toward Capitol Reef National Park. In summer, the area draws hikers and sightseers. In early March, it became a patchwork of investigation sites. Schools in the area were affected, law enforcement asked residents to stay alert and officers from multiple agencies moved through places where neighbors normally recognize nearly every vehicle they see. The contrast between the landscape’s calm reputation and the facts emerging from court papers made the story feel even more disorienting to people who live there.
Only after the community absorbed the victims’ names did the legal case begin to fill in details. Utah prosecutors filed three aggravated murder counts against Miller on Thursday. Investigators said he was arrested in Pagosa Springs, Colorado, after authorities tracked a stolen Subaru across state lines. Court records described gunfire, a stolen car, bank cards allegedly taken from victims and a sequence that began after Miller’s own vehicle was disabled earlier in the region. Officials said important questions remained, including the full timeline of his movements before March 4 and the exact chronology between the killing in Lyman and the killings near the trailhead.
Even so, the outline was enough to leave lasting images: husbands searching for overdue hikers, officers moving from a trail scene to a home in town, and a suspect found hours later far from Wayne County. For many residents, the case was not defined first by the chase or the filings. It was defined by names. Oldroyd was an older resident in her home. Dewey and Graves were family members who left for a hike and did not return. In communities this small, that is often how the story stays.
The next phase of the case centers on court proceedings that would move the case from emergency response to prosecution.
Author note: Last updated April 1, 2026.