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SALT LAKE CITY — Heidi Miller remembers hearing the news in 2018 that Joseph James DeAngelo Jr. — aka the Golden State Killer — had been arrested thanks to DNA genetic technology.
She remembers because it was at that moment she knew her own mother's murder would be solved.
"I knew. I knew in my heart we would have it solved. I didn't know how long it would take," she recently told KSL.com. "I knew we would have it solved."
Two years later, Salt Lake County Sheriff Rosie Rivera called Miller on a Saturday and said she wanted to meet with her and her husband at the sheriff's office. Greg Miller was hunting in Idaho at the time, but the sheriff insisted on meeting with them that day in person.
"We had a good idea" what was going on, Heidi Miller said.
Once the Millers arrived at the sheriff's office, detective Ben Pender, a specialist in cold cases, entered the room with the sheriff.
"Ben came in and said, 'We got him,'" recalled Miller who said she felt shock and relief at the same time.
Shortly after, it was announced publicly that Adam Antonio Spencer Durborow had been arrested for murdering Sherry Black 10 years earlier.
Black, 64, the mother-in-law of former Larry H. Miller Group CEO Greg Miller, was found stabbed to death inside her bookstore, B&W Billiards and Books, 3466 S. 700 East, on Nov. 30, 2010. For nearly a decade there were no suspects or persons of interest in the case. In 2021, Durborow pleaded guilty to aggravated murder, a first-degree felony. And in 2022, he was sentenced to life in the Utah State Prison without the possibility of parole.
Pender took over as the lead detective in the Black murder investigation in 2018. He said he and his team put in numerous hours of work, trying everything from a new technique called phenotyping to genetic genealogy with Parabon Nanolabs. The Miller family even put Pender in touch with a person who worked in the genealogy department at The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Pender said his team had hundreds of names to check out, and followed the possible lineage of potential suspects back to the 1800s.
Because of Pender's efforts in solving the cold case mystery, he was recognized last year by the U.S. Department of Justice with the Attorney General's Award for Distinguished Service in Community Policing.
Now the story of how the Sherry Black murder investigation unfolded is being told in a live panel discussion.
On Thursday, "The Bookstore Murder; a Journey for Justice: The Sherry Black Story" will be held from 7-9 p.m. at Kingsbury Hall. It's billed as a live stage event "geared toward true-crime enthusiasts," featuring a panel of "investigative crime experts who will review this case from its beginning through final sentencing." The panel will include Pender, Patrick "Zip" Zirpoli who provided victimology for the case, and popular true-crime podcaster Ashley Flowers.
The live panel discussion has the backing of the Sherry Black Foundation, and ticket sales for the event will benefit the foundation, which was established by the Millers in 2017. During this past Utah legislative session, the foundation helped push for the passage of the "Sherry Black Bill" which sets guardrails for police to search optional genetic testing databases for investigations of violent crimes.
Heidi Miller says the panel discussion at Kingsbury Hall is both to show appreciation to everyone who followed her mother's case closely for a decade and offered their support to the Miller family, and to bring awareness to the hundreds of other cases in Utah that are still unsolved.
"I have huge love and respect for law enforcement. We want to show what it takes and how much work it takes (to solve a crime like this one)," she said.
Matching the DNA was the final piece of the puzzle in her mother's murder investigation. But "the story hasn't been fully told," she said while noting that there are even "family members who haven't heard the full story."
"During the investigation into my mother's brutal murder there was a period of time where we felt all available tools had been used and leads were being exhausted. But with the advancement of technology and increased public interest in the field of genealogy, a new investigative tool was discovered that provided progress resulting in our case to be solved. My hope by presenting this panel is that more members of our community will understand the impact of investigative genetic genealogy and become genetic witnesses."
Miller says it's important for her to "continue to make a difference" with her foundation by providing resources to do things such as teach police how to use DNA evidence as well as by offering crime assessment training symposiums, case consultation to families searching for answers, and community support for the advancement of investigative tools.
"Gotta continue to do good," Miller said.
