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SALT LAKE CITY — Federal investigators want hair samples from the man accused of kidnapping and murdering Utah Transit Authority employee Kay Ricks.
The man's father, who was also charged with murdering Ricks but recently committed suicide, told police his son kept two bloody knives he considered "his trophies," according to a search warrant affidavit filed in U.S. District Court.
Investigators recently requested "25 hairs plucked from the head (of Dereck James "DJ" Harrison)," including five hairs from five different sections of his head, in addition to a "collection of as many hairs" that Harrison has naturally shed while combing, the warrant states.
The hairs will be used "for mitochondrial DNA testing and microscopic comparisons against hairs discovered on or near the deceased body of Kay Porter Ricks," according to the affidavit.
Harrison, of Centerville, and his father, Flint Wayne Harrison, 51, of Pinedale, Wyoming, were each charged in Wyoming, with murder in the first degree in the killing of Ricks, 63, of American Fork. Ricks' body was found in a remote area about 16 miles south of Kemmerer, Wyoming, on May 17.
The search warrant was signed on July 27, two days after Flint Harrison committed suicide by hanging himself inside his cell at the Davis County Jail.
When Flint Harrison surrendered to police in Wyoming on May 14, he told investigators that his son was a "killer" and that he had "killed people in the past," the warrant states. He also told police that his son "had two knives, both of which were covered in blood because they were his trophies," police wrote.
"Flint told the investigator he had information regarding a murder but wanted to speak to an attorney prior to providing more details."
A knife was recovered at the scene where Ricks' body was found.
On May 10, the Harrisons allegedly lured a Clinton woman and her four teenage daughters to a home in Centerville where they were kidnapped and assaulted before breaking free.
Two days later, while the Harrisons were still on the run from police, they allegedly kidnapped Ricks and took him and his UTA vehicle to Wyoming.
Ricks' body was found on May 17. Prosecutors believe Ricks suffered a brutal death over an 18-minute period that included his face being smashed with a blunt force object to the point he was no longer recognizable and his neck slashed three times before he was dumped under a sagebrush and left to die, according to charging documents.
The warrant also says Flint Harrison went to his home in Pinedale on the night of May 12. When his wife found him, he told her "they" had already grabbed what they needed and DJ Harrison had left, but Flint Harrison stayed behind to "say goodbye," the warrant states.
DJ Harrison also faces five counts of kidnapping, a first-degree felony; five counts of aggravated assault, a third-degree felony; possession of a controlled substance, a class A misdemeanor; possession of drug paraphernalia, a class B misdemeanor; and three counts of interrupting a communications device, a class B misdemeanor, for the alleged Centerville kidnapping incident. Prosecutors have said they plan to pursue that case first before Harrison is extradited to Wyoming to face the murder charges there.
