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SALT LAKE CITY — Charges were filed Thursday in connection with a 25-year-old cold case homicide.
Thomas "Peanut" Pennington, 45, was charged in 3rd District Court with murder in the second degree, a first-degree felony, in connection with the 1986 strangling death of Patricia "Smurf" Ramirez.
Pennington was Ramirez's ex-boyfriend.
(A) witness told police that Pennington informed him that Ramirez was dead on July 8, five days before her body was found.
On July 8, 1986, Ramirez, 20, went to meet up with three friends on Main Street near the Crossroads Plaza mall, the charges state. When Ramirez never returned home, her roommate filed a missing person's report two days later.
On July 13, Ramirez's body was found on a hillside above Memory Grove. She had been dead for several days.
"Patricia’s skirt was unzipped, her shirt was torn and buttons were missing, and her bra was torn in half. One half of the bra was used to strangle her," according to the charging documents.
A witness told police he drove Ramirez, Pennington and two other men to a Salt Lake apartment. "The defendant and the two unknown males returned and placed something in the trunk of his car," the charges state.
The man then drove to the hill where the body was later found. He opened the trunk for the men and "observed what he described as a package that was similar in size and the shape of a body, in particular a body the size of Ms. Ramirez," according to the charges.
This is a classic example of people working hard. This is bringing justice back to the victim's family.
–Sim Gill, Salt Lake County DA.
Another witness told police that Pennington informed him that Ramirez was dead on July 8, five days before her body was found.
"The defendant then told (the witness) that Patricia was gone and that she was found over a hill, or on a mountain, or something similar to that," the charges state.
Pennington is currently incarcerated at the Tipton Correction Center in Missouri. It was unclear what charge he was convicted of.
"In a recorded interview on March 8, 2011, the defendant told detectives that he never wanted to kill her or harm her in that way. The defendant also said that the last time he saw Ms. Ramirez was at a bus stop in Kansas City, Missouri, six months prior to her death."
Salt Lake County District Attorney Sim Gill said Pennington was due to be released from prison on his current conviction in just a couple of weeks. He will be extradited back to Utah to face his new charge.
Both Gill and the Salt Lake Police Department complimented each other and the cooperation between the two agencies, notably the D.A.'s new homicide division, for making the case come together.
"This is a classic example of people working hard. This is bringing justice back to the victim's family," Gill said. "This is an opportunity for closure for the community. My hat goes off to the Salt Lake homicide detectives."
Gill declined to get into specific evidence or motive Thursday, but noted that forensic evidence helped investigators "put the pieces together."
Email:preavy@ksl.com
