Relatives, police seek answers in decades-old death


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FARMINGTON — Relatives of a woman whose remains were unearthed in Fruit Heights two months ago said Monday they want answers about their loved one’s death.

Davis County sheriff’s investigators unearthed the remains of Theresa Rose Greaves off a U.S. 89 frontage road in February after a man initially spotted the woman’s skull in some bushes.

“It’s just horrible to think that she’s been up on that hill all these years,” said Cathy Greaves Spurgeon, a cousin who lives in Florida. “All of us — all these years — never forgot about her. We were always, always wondering where she was and [were] always worried about her.”

Detectives had been seeking a next-of-kin since in March. They located Spurgeon and other relatives late last week.

“We really want a thorough investigation, because this is just too long, too many answers,” Spurgeon said. “We need answers for all these years that have gone by.”

Spurgeon said she spent a lot of time with her cousin when they were little.

“We had so much fun together,” Spurgeon said. “We just enjoyed being with each other.”

Greaves moved to Utah in 1983.

“She was infatuated with Donny Osmond and I believe she just wanted to be out there in that culture and become a Mormon and live that life out there,” Greaves’ cousin said.

Spurgeon said Greaves stayed in daily contact with her grandmother even after the move, but that ended suddenly within a couple months of her arrival in the state.

“When it stopped, everyone knew something was wrong,” Spurgeon said.

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Despite a missing person’s case, the work of a private investigator and family members traveling to Utah to see what they could find, Spurgeon said there was never a trace of Greaves.

When the relatives were contacted by a detective, they had a hard time believing it, more than 31 years after Greaves’ disappearance.

“I was a little leery on calling him back because I didn’t know if it was a scam or what was going on,” Spurgeon said. “It’s just so hard to comprehend, and I know my dad the first three or four days — he was just in denial.”

Now, the family wants to bury Greaves with her grandmother in Virginia — something they recognize could take time.

Sgt. DeeAnn Servey said detectives were following up on some leads in what’s been called a homicide investigation.

“Of course we want to solve it as quick as we can, but we just don’t know,” Servey said. “There is a lot of groundwork that has to be re-done. We have a lot to go on — but we have to re-do a lot of that initial investigation.”

Spurgeon said she hopes the answers finally come.

“Theresa didn’t deserve this — I don’t know what happened out there that day, but she didn’t deserve it,” Spurgeon said. “She was really a sweet young girl trying to start a new life somewhere, and it was really just a shame what happened.”

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