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PAYSON -- The Utah County Sheriff's Office has named Kay Mortensen's son and daughter-in-law as persons of interest in his unsolved murder. On Monday, detectives also released the 911 call made after the former BYU professor was killed in his home in November.
Investigators say both Roger and Pamela Mortensen have been persons of interest since day one. However, they say they owed it to the public to release the information with the 911 tape.
Roger and Pamela Mortensen were present at Kay Mortensen's home around the time of his murder. During the 911 call, Pamela Mortensen tells the dispatcher her husband found Kay Mortensen's lifeless body.
On the recording, a dispatcher can be heard saying, "I have help on the way, but I just need to get some information. Are you sure that he's dead?"
"Um, I don't know," Pamela Mortensen replies. "My husband went upstairs, looked around, or went to look. I don't know if he is or not."
Later on, Roger Mortensen gets on the phone.
"You sure dad's, your dad's cold to the touch?" the dispatcher asks.
"He's leaned over, face forward, in the bathtub with his throat sliced all the way up," Roger Mortensen replies.
"They sliced his throat?" the dispatcher asks.
"Yeah," Roger Mortensen replies.
Pamela Mortensen tells the dispatcher that she and her husband were held hostage by men with guns. When the dispatcher asks her for a description of the men, she cannot provide one.
All the while, Pamela Mortensen remains extremely calm on the phone as the dispatcher asks her for more information.
Detectives say Roger and Pamela Mortensen have provided inconsistent statements throughout the investigation. That's why they are considered persons of interest.
"We've asked them to submit to a composite sketch of the alleged suspects for us, and they've refused to," says Utah County sheriff's Lt. Mike Brower.
But the Mortensens' attorney, Greg Skordas, says that's not so.
"We have tried to be very cooperative," Skordas says. "We will continue to be cooperative. If the sheriff's office wants us to sit down and do a composite, we'll do that. We'll do that tomorrow."
Skordas says he's been in contact with the couple since late November, when they felt the county started pointing the finger instead of looking for the killer.
"These people have nothing to do with this homicide," Skordas says.
Detectives say the DNA evidence should be coming back from the lab anytime now. There are other persons of interest, but detectives would not release their identities.
E-mail: ngonzales@ksl.com
