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WEST JORDAN — A West Jordan woman was charged Wednesday with loading a man who died from a drug overdose into the back of his Jeep with the rest of her possessions and attempting to move to California.
Cherie Ann Clark, 44, and Joshua Lee Zobel, 25, also of West Jordan, were charged with theft by receiving stolen property and abuse or desecration of a dead body, both second-degree felonies. Clark also faces an additional charge of obstructing justice, a third-degree felony.
The bizarre case began Oct. 5 when the family of Bryce Lowry reported him missing and his Jeep stolen. Lowry was last seen on Oct. 2 when he left his house to visit Clark, according to charging documents.
Later in the afternoon on Oct. 5, Lowry's Jeep was found on the Moapa Indian Reservation in Nevada. Police say Clark and Zobel were in the vehicle.
Clark told officers that she sold meth and heroin to Lowry at her West Jordan residence and he died a short time later outside, according to charging documents. She said she and a man named "Chaos" then wrapped him "in a sheet and a sleeping bag."
At that point, Clark "decided to use this as an opportunity to take Bryce's Jeep and move to California," so she put Lowry's body in the back of the Jeep and "a large amount of her personal property" on top of him to conceal the body, the charges state.
She then picked up Zobel and started heading toward California. When they got to southern Utah, Clark said she told Zobel about the body and they "began planning how to dispose of the body," according to the charges.
Court records show Clark has an extensive criminal history in Utah. Charging documents do not say whether an autopsy had been conducted yet on Lowry's body or whether it was confirmed that he fatally overdosed.
