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INDIANOLA, Sanpete County — Charred bones, including a human skull, were among the items uncovered by law enforcers investigating a shallow grave on the Utah County-Sanpete County border, according to a newly unsealed search warrant affidavit.
The body of Wesley Dee Nay, 22, was discovered Oct. 20 in a shallow grave in a remote area near U.S. 89. His death is being investigated as a homicide. Police believe his body was also set on fire.
On Wednesday, a search warrant was unsealed in 4th District Court giving more details about what investigators found when they were led to the shallow grave by a man who came across it while hunting coyotes with his son.
The area was determined to be 2,000 feet inside Utah County. So Sanpete County sheriff's deputies contacted the Utah County Sheriff's Office to assist them.
The shallow grave was described as being in a wooded meadow about 3 miles east of the Indianola LDS stake center.
"When we approached the grave, I could see charred debris around the edges of the hole, along with the side of the hole itself being charred. I looked around the immediate area and could see two piles of limbs and wood. This wood had been cut with a chainsaw," Sanpete County sheriff's detective Chad Nielson wrote in the affidavit.
Related:
Shallow grave of Mt. Pleasant man was set on fire, police say
The person or people who made a shallow grave to dump the body of a Mt. Pleasant man near the Utah County-Sanpete County border also set it on fire, investigators say.A few weeks before, the sheriff's office had been assisting Mt. Pleasant police on a case of a missing person. Nay "had gone missing under suspicious circumstances. During the course of this investigation, we conducted several interviews and took several reports from concerned citizens. More than one of these people reported hearing Wesley was set on fire and buried in a hole," the affidavit states.
Upon further inspection of the suspected shallow grave, "We began to uncover what look like charred bones, biological material and other burnt debris. Shortly after that, we located what appears to be a charred human skull," according to the warrant.
Among the items recovered at the scene were various body parts and "numerous bone fragments."
Nay was reported missing on Sept. 18, but the last time he was confirmed to have been seen may have been at the end of August or in early September, according to police.
No arrest had been in the case as of Wednesday. A motive for the killing was also not known.
Anyone with information can call the Utah County Sheriff's Office at 801-851-4010 or send an email to Lt. Erik Knutzen at erikk@utahcounty.gov.
