- FBI and Saratoga Springs police will search the Jordan River for evidence in a previous double homicide.
- The search relates to the March deaths of Jessica Lyman and her son Eli Painter.
- No arrests have been made.
SARATOGA SPRINGS — Dive teams from the FBI and the Saratoga Springs Police Department are searching the Jordan River and its surrounding banks on Monday, looking for evidence in the March shooting deaths of a 44-year-old mother and her 8-year-old son.
After months of no updates, Saratoga Springs announced Monday that the police department, in conjunction with the FBI, "will conduct a search of the Jordan River and the surrounding area" around Jessica Orton Lyman's townhome, 1244 N. Willowbrook Lane, where the mother and her young son, Eli Painter, were found with gunshot wounds in Lyman's bedroom on March 28. Eli was pronounced dead at the scene. Lyman was flown to a local hospital and died a couple of days later.
Police say the search area is one "of multiple locations where law enforcement is conducting efforts to locate additional evidence to further the investigation of the incident." However, Saratoga Springs spokeswoman AnnElise Harrison said Monday that police are declining to release additional information about the location of those other search areas.
No arrests have been made in the killings, and no suspects have been named.
"It has been nearly eight months since an act of senseless violence took the lives of our daughter and sister, Jessica Lyman, and our grandson and nephew, Eli Painter. We never imagined our family would face this kind of tragedy, and it has been very emotionally difficult," the Orton family said Monday in a prepared statement.
"Since March 28, we have worked closely and consistently with the Saratoga Springs Police Department and other local and national law enforcement agencies in pursuit of justice. We are encouraged by this search of the Jordan River by the dive team for additional evidence, and we remain hopeful it will help bring accountability to those responsible. We miss Jessica and Eli every single day and continue to seek the answers and justice their memories deserve."
Several search warrants unsealed in 4th District Court earlier this year indicated that police had collected evidence from doorbell cameras and items were seized from inside the house, including the bedroom of Lyman's 15-year-old son. The teen boy told police he was sleeping when the shootings occurred. Lyman's 17-year-old daughter, who had just arrived home, called 911 and reported that she found her mother and younger brother "lying in bed, unconscious and bleeding from their heads."
Details on what the dive teams will be looking for were not immediately available. Police have previously said that no guns have been recovered in the investigation.
On Monday morning, multiple two-person crews, each carrying a metal detector and a shovel, were seen walking from the command post down the hill to the river bottom. The Jordan River is not visible from the command center, being surrounded by cattails and other tall weeds. Search crews wearing galoshes and waders made their way into the search area. Investigators also brought out wood planks to cover the exceptionally muddy areas.
Harrison says police are returning to the Jordan River now because the area being searched is approximately 5 feet deep at the water level's deepest point, and dips down to just 6 inches in other places.
"Just shortly after the incident, the police department did work with the county to bring out a group to go through the river with magnets to see if they could find something. And they weren't able to, partly because the river was so high," she said. "Now that we've reached the end of the irrigation season and that water level is a lot lower, it makes it more conducive to searches like this."
Harrison said the search crews are expected to be in the area for several days. She said detectives are working closely with the Utah County Attorney's Office to determine what pieces of evidence need to be collected to build a solid case for prosecution.
"This investigation remains active and ongoing, and anyone with information related to this case is asked to contact the Saratoga Springs Investigations Unit at 801-766-6503. Additional details will not be released at this time to protect the integrity of the investigation," the city said in a statement.
This may be updated.
