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SALT LAKE CITY — A group of renowned detectives from around the world have gathered in Salt Lake City this week to discuss cold case homicides.
The week-long conference is being hosted by the Unified Police Department and the Vidocq Society, named after the groundbreaking 19th century French detective Eugene Francois Vidocq.
The crime-fighting group consists of experts from many different fields such as psychology, homicide investigators, prosecutors, doctors, coroners, FBI profilers and other forensics experts. They typically meet once a month to consider cold cases from around the world that may have local law enforcement agencies stumped.
The Vidocq Society has a stringent criteria of what cases they will hear. Most of the specific cases the group will be hearing in Utah are not being revealed.
But Unified Police Lt. Justin Hoyal confirmed that the 2005 death of Jason Royter in Magna will be one of the cases discussed.
Royter's body was found in a house, 7383 W. Paine Road (3745 South), on Aug. 6, 2005. The 33-year-old was stabbed multiple times.
In court documents, investigators said there was blood in nearly every room of the house and furniture was overturned everywhere. There were no signs of forced entry, and the homeowner, who was not present at the time of the killing, said she believed "the intruder was likely known to the (victim,)" court records state.
One of the detectives who will be looking at the case this week is Todd Park, from the Unified Police Department.
In February, Park, who has received numerous recognitions for his work on cold case crimes, was selected as the newest member of the exclusive 82-member Vidocq Society.
Email:preavy@ksl.com
