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- Jatinder Kaur Purewal, 47, was charged with murder in her ex-husband's death.
- Purewal and Jaswinder Dhillon communicated extensively before and after the murder.
- Investigators found Purewal had threatened Jaspinder Singh and attempted to hide evidence.
DELLE, Tooele County — The ex-wife of a man who was found dead inside a semitruck in Tooele County last year has been arrested and accused of murder.
Jaspinder Singh, of California, was found dead inside the sleeper cab of a semitruck stopped on the on-ramp to I-80 near Delle, Tooele County, on Sept. 26. 2024. He was located by a co-worker who had decided to check on him when he noticed his truck's GPS was not moving, officials said.
The death was deemed suspicious and foul play was suspected, according to the State Bureau of Investigation, but initial details were not released about why.
A month later, Jaswinder Singh Dhillon, 46, of Ridgefield, Washington, was charged in 3rd District Court with aggravated murder and aggravated kidnapping, first-degree felonies.
According to charging documents, Singh's body was found lying on his stomach, with his hands bound by a zip tie. Lacerations were located on the neck and lower extremities and blood stains were found on the bed, pillow and area surrounding the body.
Chopper 5, KSLInvestigators learned a white Mercedes had been following Singh's semi for over 60 miles in Utah alone and the two vehicles had stopped at the same gas stations between California and Utah, charges state. The Mercedes was confirmed to be registered to Dhillon.
On Tuesday, more than a year after the latest update in the case, the Utah Department of Public Safety announced Singh's ex-wife had been arrested in connection to his death.
Jatinder Kaur Purewal, 47, was arrested on Nov. 20 in California. She was extradited to Utah and is in custody at the Tooele County Jail, according to the Department of Public Safety.
Purewal was charged in 3rd District Court on Nov. 18 with aggravated murder and aggravated kidnapping, first-degree felonies, plus two counts of obstruction of justice, a second-degree felony.
"Evidence obtained in the investigation indicates that Ms. Purewal and Mr. Dhillon were in communication before, during and after the time the victim was killed," the department said in a statement.
The two had spoken for almost six hours total across 10 different video or voice calls from about 3 p.m. to midnight on Sept. 26, 2024, according to Purewal's charges, which were unsealed Monday.
Approximately 34 phone calls were found on jail phone records between Purewal and Dhillon in the two weeks after he was arrested.
In those phone calls, the two expressed love for each other, Dhillon said he did not know why he had been arrested, and "the two of them never discussed the fact that Jatinder's ex-husband was the victim who had been murdered," the charges state.
Singh and Purewal have a daughter, and Purewal is currently married to another man that is not Dhillon, court documents said.
Investigators learned during interviews with Singh's family members that Purewal had made threats in the past about killing Singh, and their daughter told police she was worried Purewal was "very capable of killing her dad."
An acquaintance of Purewal told police she had spoken with Purewal, who told her she knew about the murder but "didn't think he was actually going to do it," the charges said. Through information from the acquaintance, police learned Purewal had lied about her knowledge of and communication with Dhillon and attempted to hide her phone call records from police by deleting cellphone data.
"It is believed that Jaswinder Dhillon was encouraged by (Purewal) to commit the crimes of aggravated murder and aggravated kidnapping," the charges state.
