Ogden cold case closed after investigators obtain prison confession

OGDEN — It was a homicide that had gone unsolved for nearly 30 years — until a confession from the killer finally closed the case.

Investigators from the Ogden Police Department and the Weber Metro Cold Case Task Force announced that they now have the answers to what happened to Richard Roy Billmayer in 1997, which led to him being listed years later as a missing person under suspicious circumstances on the National Crime Information Center database.

Richard Annis, a prison inmate at Anamosa State Penitentiary in Iowa who is currently serving a life sentence for another homicide, admitted to detectives during a recorded prison confession that he killed Billmayer and disposed of his body in a dumpster.

"Everything had to go right," said Ogden Police Detective Douglas Dunbar, one of the lead investigators, in an interview with KSL. "Surreal is the best way to say it — 30-year-old investigation finally coming to a conclusion and getting some answers."

Investigator Mike Rounkles with the Weber Metro Cold Case Task Force, which operates under the Weber County Attorney's Office, said he was grateful that he and Dunbar were able to provide those answers for Billmayer's family.

"It feels good," Rounkles said. "The best-case scenario here was the truth, and now they have it."

Richard Billmayer

Sabra Winters said Billmayer was her favorite uncle.

"He was always the fun uncle — the one who threw me over his head," Winters told KSL. "I mean, he was just the life of the party."

Winters said Billmayer struggled with alcohol, and that led him to a transient life that took him to several states, and his family members didn't hear from him again after 1997.

"When my grandmother passed away and he didn't come to the funeral and he didn't come to the will reading, we were like, 'Something's wrong,'" Winters said. "We knew almost immediately that something bad had happened. I mean, it was just a gut feeling that when he didn't come for my grandmother's funeral, (there) would have been nothing that would have kept him away."

2008 Investigation

According to Dunbar, the Ogden Police Department did not know Billmayer was missing until 2008, when officers received a phone call tip from a woman.

"(She) provided just a little bit of information that her ex-husband had murdered an individual in the Ogden area and placed his body in a dumpster," Dunbar said.

Dunbar said Detective Jim Gent immediately began investigating under challenging circumstances, including that the area where this had supposedly happened, near 1700 S. Washington Blvd., had changed completely.

Gent, however, was able to obtain map overviews of what the block looked like in 1997, and he was also able to identify and interview witnesses.

He also tried contacting Annis, but to no avail.

"He ultimately wrote a letter to Mr. Annis and asked for a reply and didn't get a reply," Dunbar said.

Ultimately, police determined there was insufficient evidence to proceed, and the case turned cold.

"There was a lot of hard work that went in, and it was timing," said Rounkles.

2019 Investigation

In 2019, police said the case once again received a fresh look under Ogden Police Detective Andrew Howard.

Dunbar said Howard identified a corroborating witness who once again pointed the finger at Annis, which gave the case more traction.

"It was not just one individual saying a story with no other evidence," Dunbar said.

Howard traveled to Iowa and visited Annis, who was serving a life sentence for a murder he committed in 2001.

According to court records, Annis at that time was staying at a home when a woman there complained about how her boyfriend was treating her and her children.

The documents stated that Annis admitted to using a butcher knife to stab the boyfriend in the neck, killing him. Witnesses said Annis then wrapped the body in a comforter and placed it in the back of a pickup truck under two tires and trash, before those witnesses left the home and called police.

Dunbar said those proved to be similar circumstances to what Annis' ex-wife was claiming happened in 1997, when she and Annis were boyfriend-girlfriend and "couch surfing" in a home where Billmayer was also staying.

"Mr. Annis was intoxicated and high, and Mr. Billmayer made a vulgar comment towards Dawn, which upset him," Dunbar recalled of the story. "So Mr. Annis grabbed a hammer and bludgeoned Mr. Billmayer in the head while he was sitting in a recliner."

When Howard visited Annis in 2019, however, the trail once again came to an end.

"As they were pushing him for answers, he said, 'We're done talking, I'm not going to talk to you anymore,'" Rounkles said.

New Look in 2025

Police said investigators with the Cold Case Coalition took up Billmayer's case in 2025, conducting extensive research into Billmayer, Annis, witnesses, and the investigation over the years.

Dunbar said the Cold Case Coalition presented their findings to him earlier this year, and then he took those findings to the Weber Metro Cold Case Task Force.

He and Rounkles came up with a new strategy to try to get Annis to talk.

"We would potentially give him immunity if he was to give us the entire story of what happened, so it would give (the family) closure, and so they can close this chapter in their lives," Dunbar explained.

The two investigators floated the idea to family members, who were receptive.

"As soon as (Rounkles) said that's what he wanted to do, I was completely for it," Winters said. "Yeah, just tell me what I need to sign. Cold cases sit there forever, and so if it helps to put it on the back burner and be done and over with, then, yeah, I still feel like justice is being served because it's not like that man's out there living his life."

The Confession

With the blessing of family, Dunbar and Rounkles traveled to the Anamosa State Penitentiary in Iowa and interviewed Annis once again on Aug. 11.

The encounter, recorded on video and obtained by KSL, began with Annis appearing reticent to talk with a fuzzy memory.

"I really don't have nothin' to say," Annis told the investigators.

When Dunbar asked Annis if he remembered anything from his time in Ogden, Annis replied, "No."

That's when the investigators presented the transactional immunity agreement, meaning Annis would not be prosecuted for the crime in exchange for the truth about what happened.

"You could see there was kind of like a 'switch' in him where he realizes this is a win-win for him," Rounkles said. "He gets to get something off his chest and nothing else in his life changes."

Annis' memory started to become clearer, the video showed.

"If you would have, do you remember maybe how you would have done it, if you did?" asked Rounkles.

"I think a hammer," Annis responded.

"Do you remember why you would have?" Rounkles asked.

"Well, because I think he raped my girlfriend," Annis responded.

Annis, during the interview, described the killing as a "spur of the moment" thing that took place hours after what his girlfriend told him.

"It was right there in the living room where the TV was," Annis stated decisively.

Annis admitted to grabbing a particular brand of hammer and striking Billmayer multiple times while he was sitting in a recliner.

According to Annis, he took Billmayer's body out to a nearby dumpster somewhere between 15 and 30 minutes later and sketched out on paper the path he took.

"So, I dragged him over here, and I put him in the dumpster," Annis could be seen explaining to Dunbar.

Dunbar said he and his girlfriend left town the next day.

"Have you told anybody about this over the years, or kept it to yourself?" Dunbar asked.

"Kept it to myself," Annis said.

"That's got to be pretty rough," Dunbar said.

"Yeah," Annis said.

Dunbar asked Annis if he ever regretted what happened, and he replied, "Yeah."

"Is there anything you would like me to pass along to family?" Dunbar asked.

"Yeah, you can tell them I'm very sorry for taking their loved one," Annis replied.

Rounkles said what was happening in the moment wasn't lost on the investigators.

"You don't want to look too anxious to them, but inside you're like, 'This is actually happening,'" Rounkles said. "You're trying to keep a calm face and just accepting the information that they're telling you without showing them that you're kind of excited inside because this is happening."

Dunbar said he was grateful to provide those answers to Billmayer's family.

"I can't imagine what it would feel like to have a family member missing for 30 years," Dunbar said.

Karra Porter, CEO of the Utah Cold Case Coalition, also noted the case's resolution.

"The Coalition's researchers worked hard finding potential witnesses and evidence on this case," Porter said in a statement. "Ogden PD was very diligent in bringing this case to its conclusion and providing answers to Mr. Billmayer's family."

Winters said she was grateful to finally know what happened to her favorite uncle.

"It's just kind of a relief to know that this person admitted to it and that my uncle's case is no longer just a missing person," Winters said. "I know where his body ended up, and I'm happy about the fact that he's underneath a park now. That's the best burial he probably could have been given, and so it's really just a relief that they were able to close the case and actually have an ending to it."

Weber Metro Cold Case Task Force

Rounkles said solving cold cases like these wouldn't be possible without donations to the Weber Metro Cold Case Task Force.

"It help(s) us pay for expensive DNA testing when it comes to these cases," Rounkles said. "Additionally, even though there is tech, there is still an aspect to these investigations where it's boots on the ground. When years and years go by, people move all around the country, and this helps pay for plane tickets and a hotel just so we can travel out and have these conversations, whether it's key witnesses or suspects."

He said the task force continues to accept donations through its website.

"These donations we've gotten from these public and private donors, it does absolutely make a difference," Rounkles said. "We try to stretch that money as far as we can."

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