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SPANISH FORK — Human remains were discovered Monday underneath the cellar of a Spanish Fork home previously occupied by Peggy Sue Case, a woman who went missing in 1988, police said.
"If it is indeed her, it'd be a great day," said Carl Johnston, the retired Spanish Fork investigator who formerly led the probe into Case's disappearance.
Police were dispatched to 80 N. 800 East at 10:15 a.m. when the resident of the house found what appeared to be human remains while moving from the home. The resident had noticed the dirt floor of the cellar was sinking and became suspicious. The man and a friend who was helping him move decided to dig down.
After digging down approximately 18 inches, they found what appeared to be a human skull. The skull was wrapped in a blanket and plastic mesh. The two immediately exited the cellar and called the police.
The resident had been told by a neighbor that a previous tenant who lived at the property had gone missing in 1988 and never been located. When the resident noticed the sinking dirt, he wondered if something or someone was buried underneath, causing him to investigate further, police said.
The Spanish Fork City Police Department received a report of a missing woman named Peggy Sue Case living in the same residence in 1988. Case was reported missing by co-workers and, though the incident was thoroughly investigated by police, she was never found.
The police had dug down in the cellar but didn't find any evidence. Case was living with a man named Michael Kufrin at the time of her disappearance. He was identified as a person of interest in Case's disappearance, though his current whereabouts are unknown.
Kufrin was extradited from Nevada to answer theft charges and questions about Case's disappearance in February 1989, according to The Deseret News. Kufrin still refused to answer questions about Case at a parole hearing in 1990 while serving a zero-to-five-year prison term for attempted theft.
"I don't want to talk about it," Kufrin told members of the Utah Board of Pardons in October 1990.
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Kufrin was in prison after he violated his probation twice, once returning to his home state of Illinois, and once stealing an employer's truck and traveling with guns to Nevada, where he was taken into custody three months later.
Case, 28, was last seen alive with Kufrin at a party July 9, 1988, authorities said. After the gathering, Kufrin called her office and said she was sick, detectives said, then told her employer the following day that she had left town to buy a car.
Police questioned Kufrin several times, saying they received differing reports about where Case was, Kufrin initially said she was keeping in touch with him by phone, but he later declined to talk about her with police.
His prison term expired in 1995.
On Monday, a man reached at an Illinois phone number did not provide his name but said he was Kufrin's father.
"I don't know where he is. He's not here," the man said.
Police said the state medical examiner was working to identify the remains.
Contributing: Annie Knox
