Utah investigators say court records now outline alleged motive, travel records and physical evidence as the search for Alvaro Jose Urbina Rojas continues.
PROVO, Utah — Prosecutors have charged a Saratoga Springs man with first-degree murder in the death of his wife after investigators found her body inside a trailer stored in Draper, and police say the defendant remains at large while an arrest warrant is active nationwide.
The filing of a murder charge changed the case from a broad missing-person search into a prosecution built around specific allegations. Court records and police statements now lay out the path investigators say led from a missed work shift on Feb. 26 to a March 2 search warrant, a homicide ruling and a March 9 charge against Alvaro Jose Urbina Rojas, 57, in the death of Jeusselem Elieth Genes Vitola, 43.
The most direct account of the killing came from the charging documents, not the first police briefing. According to the court filing, detectives discovered Genes’ body inside a trailer owned by Rojas at a Draper storage facility. The filing said her hands were bound with a zip-tie and rope wrapped around her hands and body. It said an autopsy found severe blunt force trauma to the head and indications of possible asphyxiation, and that the medical examiner ruled the death a homicide. Those details were not part of the first public summary released days earlier, when police were still describing Rojas only as a person of interest. By the time charges were filed, the state was presenting a much more detailed theory of the case and had secured an arrest warrant.
The documents also describe what investigators say happened before the body was found. Family members contacted Saratoga Springs police on Feb. 27 after the couple had not been seen since leaving home the day before. Officers said Rojas had been expected to drive Genes to work after the pair dropped off their 11-year-old child with relatives. She never arrived at her job. From there, detectives used cellphone data, license plate reader technology and banking records. According to the charge, the SUV traveled south through Cedar City, St. George and into Las Vegas on Feb. 26, while debit card use followed that same route. Investigators also said Rojas’ phone later registered in the Draper area around 2:40 a.m. on Feb. 28, placing him near the same general location where the trailer was stored.
That overlap between digital records and a physical location appears to have been central to the warrant application. The charging document said detectives learned from relatives that the couple owned a trailer in Draper. Once law enforcement connected that trailer to the area where the phone had pinged, officers sought judicial approval to search it. On March 2, they entered the RV and found Genes inside, along with a cellphone, according to the court record. Police have not publicly laid out every step taken between the ping in Draper and the service of the warrant, but the record suggests investigators were building a chain that tied the missing-person report, the electronic trail and the stored camper to one place. That progression gave the later prosecution a factual backbone that was not yet public at the first news conference.
The prosecution also offered a clearer picture of possible motive. Detectives wrote that the couple had been dealing with serious financial problems for about a year and that the strain had affected the marriage. The filing said Genes had recently told her husband she wanted a divorce. Family members also told police, according to the charge, that Rojas had become jealous and suspicious and had been following her. Investigators went further, alleging that he may have purposely tampered with her vehicle to make it unusable so she would have to accept a ride from him to work. That allegation, if proved, would suggest planning before the killing. For now, it remains part of the state’s accusation, and there is no public court response from Rojas because he had not been arrested.
Police statements issued alongside the charge emphasized that the search had not ended. Saratoga Springs police said the warrant had been entered into the National Crime Information Center database, making it visible to agencies across the country. Investigators said they believed Rojas might be in California. Earlier public alerts identified the vehicle as a gray 2005 Toyota Sequoia with Utah plate T409YB and listed his height, weight and alternate name. The department also said it continued to work with Draper police, the FBI, Immigration and Customs Enforcement and U.S. Border Patrol. Those agency ties reflect both the movement investigators believe occurred across state lines and the possibility that the search could shift quickly if the SUV or suspect is identified outside Utah.
The charge left several questions unresolved. Prosecutors have publicly identified the alleged injuries and the broad sequence of travel, but they have not stated exactly where Genes was killed, at what time she died, or whether any witness saw her after she left home. Nor have police publicly explained the full basis for concluding Rojas traveled alone at every point after the couple departed. Those gaps are common early in a homicide prosecution, especially when the defendant has not been arrested and investigators may still be protecting evidence. Even so, the public record now marks a major change from the first announcement: the state is no longer only asking questions about a missing husband. It is accusing him of murder.
The human cost has remained visible even as the case moved into legal procedure. Relatives said the couple had been married 19 years and had two children. Family members later described Genes as a mother who came to the United States from Venezuela to build a better future for her children. A fundraising appeal said grandparents had stepped in to care for the children after the death and the father’s disappearance. In the background of the legal case, that family upheaval remains one of the clearest facts: a woman is dead, a man charged in her killing has not been found, and the court process cannot move forward to an initial appearance until he is arrested or otherwise brought before a judge.
Author note: Last updated March 31, 2026.