5 charged with attempted murder in attack of Duchesne woman


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SALT LAKE CITY — Five people, including four members of the same family, were charged in Duchesne County on Monday with attempted aggravated murder for allegedly attacking a woman with a baseball bat and severely beating her husband.

Thomas Neil Tuinman, 35; Michael Wallace Tuinman, 30; Samantha Tuinman, 30; Stephanie Ann Tuinman, 33; and Byron Rashad Thompson, 29, were each charged in 8th District Court with attempted aggravated murder, aggravated assault, and aggravated burglary, all first-degree felonies.

The Duchesne County Sheriff's Office is investigating a motive for the attack, a statement released Monday indicated.

According to a Duchesne County Jail booking report, sheriff's deputies were called Friday to 2725 W. 2500 South in the Vaughnsville area.

"When I arrived I saw a woman sitting on the porch next door to this address surrounded by a few other people and she was screaming in pain," the officer wrote in the report.

The woman, who was bleeding from her head, nose and mouth, said that "somebody had broken their front door and beat them up," the report states.

Next door, a man was found bleeding from his head, nose and mouth, and had other cuts and bruises on his body, according to the report.

"He said that somebody had broken his front door and chased him and his wife outside and then hit and kicked him in the backyard," the report states. The man reported he had been beaten "with pieces of wood and other objects from his backyard and had also been punched and kicked while he was on the ground behind his house," the report states.

The woman said one of her alleged attackers "hit her with a bat in the head," according to the jail report.

Doctors discovered the woman had bleeding on her brain. She was flown by medical helicopter to another hospital with "extensive injuries," the report states.

The woman identified Thomas Tuinman, Samantha Tuinman and Michael Tuinman in an interview with law enforcement, according to the statement from the sheriff's office. She also reported that a man and a woman who she recognized, but whose names she didn't know, had also come to the home.

After interviewing Thomas Tuinman, Samantha Tuinman, Stephanie Tuinman, and Byron Thompson, investigators say the four had driven to the home together, where they met Michael Tuinman, according to the statement. When they arrived, they broke through the closed glass door, chased the couple outside and assaulted them, the statement indicates.

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Pat Reavy is a longtime police and courts reporter. He joined the KSL.com team in 2021, after many years of reporting at the Deseret News and KSL NewsRadio before that.

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