Murder Suspect Caught

Murder Suspect Caught


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Sarah Dallof ReportingPolice have arrested a man accused of killing the woman who befriended him in prison. Only Eyewitness News was there when authorities caught up with James Tolbert.

Tolbert has been on the run for weeks, but he was caught in Memory Grove in Salt Lake City Thursday night. Now Murray Police are questioning him.

Murder Suspect Caught

It looks like there is a hero in this story, and we don't yet know who he is. Police dispatchers say a man called them saying he believed he had James Tolbert locked in a storage shed at Memorial House.

The man, who has been identified as Tolbert, could be seen being led away in handcuffs by police. They say at first they weren't able to confirm in was Tolbert. He gave them several false names, so they arrested him for giving false information until they could positively identify him.

This ends a long search for investigators. On Oct. 10 police discovered Ann Poulson's body. She'd been strangled with a belt that investigators say had Tolbert's DNA on it.

The two met through a church program that sent volunteers to work with prison inmates. Tolbert was in prison for murder. In 1987 he strangled his wife and dumped her body in the Jordan River.

He also allegedly assaulted a friend in Woods Cross before Poulson's murder. There was a warrant for his arrest in that case as well.

Poulson is remembered as a kind and generous person who continued to help Tolbert after he was released from prison. She worked for eight years in the accounting department at the Deseret Morning News.

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