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SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — Utah authorities have determined that skeletal remains found last month near a frontage road are those of a young woman who went missing 32 years ago — and they say a man already on trial for another murder in that era is a suspect.
A medical examiner, relying in part on DNA and dental records, determined the bones were those of 23-year-old Theresa Rose Greaves, who disappeared in 1983, Davis County Sheriff's Sgt. DeeAnn Servey said Thursday.
Servey confirmed to The Associated Press that investigators have not ruled out Douglas Lovell as a suspect. Lovell was considered a suspect in Greaves' disappearance and that of another woman, but denied any involvement in a prison interview in 1993.
Jury selection is underway in a trial in Ogden for Lovell on a different case where he is accused of killing and raping a woman in 1985. The trial comes three decades after he was accused of the crime, following years of appeals that got him off death row. Opening statements in that trial are scheduled for Monday.
Lovell isn't the only suspect, but Servey said he's a person they're looking into. She would not say if they've interviewed Lovell since the medical examiner identified the remains found in February by a man walking along a U.S. Highway 89 frontage road near Fruit Heights, Utah.
The man spotted her skull during his walk about 20 miles north of Salt Lake City and called police. Officers swept the area and discovered the rest of the remains buried near the top of a steep hill covered with oak brush and leaves, Servey said.
They believe the skull and other parts of the skeleton trickled down the hill over the years due to erosion, rain and snow.
So far investigators have not been able to find a living member of Greaves family, she said. The family had recently moved to her home in Woods Cross, Utah when she disappeared. They are asking for the public's help with any information about her family or the case.
Being able to figure out who the bones belonged to is exciting, Servey said.
"Now we just want to solve it," she said.
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