Officials identify 3 killed, 1 injured in Duchesne County motorcycle crash


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HANNA, Duchesne County — Officials released the names of three people who died and one who was critically injured in a motorcycle crash in Duchesne County Thursday.

A group of motorcyclists were traveling north on state Route 35 near Hanna about 10:30 a.m. when one of the motorcyclists lost control and went down, causing two other motorcyclists to crash, according to the Utah Highway Patrol.

Anthony Cooper, 69, of Hitchcock, Texas, and John Kwiatkowski, 62, of Conroe, Texas, were each driving their own motorcycles. Both died in the crash.

The third driver, Jason Murray, 50, of Wichita, Kansas, was injured and transported to Intermountain Medical Center where he remains in critical condition. His passenger, Judith Murray, 53, of Wichita, Kansas, died following the crash.

All bikers were wearing helmets, and there was no indication of impairment or high speeds, troopers said.

The crash is still under investigation.

Troopers also arrested Bruce Joe Curry, 56, at the scene of the crash on suspicion of interfering with an officer, intoxication, disorderly conduct, criminal mischief, obstruction of justice and reckless endangerment, according to court records.

When troopers arrived, they found Curry tampering with the motorcycles at the crash scene. The officers were then asked by medical personnel to help perform chest compressions on Judith Murray, since there were a limited amount of emergency crew members and several victims.

The officers entered the ambulance to assist but soon saw Curry creating a disturbance outside with witnesses and friends of the victims, according to court records. One of the officers left the ambulance and told Curry he needed to leave the scene.

"If you are going to start something, I am going to finish it," Curry told the officer while squaring up to fight, court records show.

The officer stated in court records that he could smell alcohol on Curry's breath. The officer and another trooper arrested Curry when he began to try to fight them.

Neither of the officers were able to help perform CPR on Judith Murray. She died soon after.

Curry was booked into the Duchesne County Jail. He has a long history of substance abuse, according to court records.

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