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SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — A 17-year-old suspect made a juvenile court appearance on Wednesday after he was charged with killing his girlfriend two years ago.
The badly beaten body of 15-year-old Anne Kasprzak was found in the Jordan River after she told family and friends she was pregnant, and wrote in her journal that her boyfriend didn't seem to want the baby, according to search warrants filed in state court.
Her family told police she wasn't pregnant, the search warrants state.
The suspect was 14 when the girl was killed on March 11. 2012.
Police found the girl's blood on his shoes, according to charging documents.
The suspect told police it came from a nosebleed and had asked a friend to lie to back up his story, the documents state.
The suspect is being held in Utah after he was extradited from Grand Junction, Colorado. He is facing a murder charge and Salt Lake County District Attorney Sim Gill said he wants to try him as an adult.
The Associated Press does not normally name juveniles unless they are charged as adults.
The boy's family attended the juvenile court appearance, the Deseret News reported, but did not take questions from reporters.
Two arrests made early in the case slowed the investigation when the men were cleared of the crime, Gill said.
The ex-convicts were arrested after someone told officers they knocked the girl out and drove away with her body. Investigators later said the story was made up by a drug addict who wanted to get back at the men, The Salt Lake Tribune reported.
"They went back to square one, started reworking the case again," Gill said of police.
Kasprzak's body was discovered after a jogger noticed blood and a shoe on a footbridge over the river about 20 miles south of Salt Lake City. A helicopter search located her body.
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