TORREY, Utah (KUTV) — The suspect in the Wayne County triple homicide was charged with aggravated murder. He said he didn’t like to do it, but that it “had to be done.”
Ivan Miller, 22, of Blakesburg, Iowa, was charged with the first-degree felony counts on Thursday afternoon for the killings of three women in their 30s, 60s, and 80s.
Wayne County dispatch received a call on Wednesday that two women were found dead in a dried-up creek bed in the area of Cocks Comb Trailhead, court documents state.
The third woman’s body was reportedly found in a shed in Lyman, Utah, after officers went to conduct a welfare check.
A woman was found dead inside her home on March 4, 2026, in a triple-homicide case out of Wayne County. (Photo: Samantha Hoffman, KUTV Reporter)
Cocks Comb Trailhead Investigation
A ranger with the Bureau of Land Management responded to the scene at the trailhead just before 4:30 p.m. and found the women’s husbands flagging him down from the roadway.
The ranger said he found three spent .45 shell casings and one spent 20-gauge shotgunshell near the bodies, which appeared to have been dragged to where they were lying.
The ranger said there were drops of blood going from the road to where the bodies were located. He also said he observed the women’s tracks going uphill, above a Buick hidden under a tree, and a set of “unidentified” tracks.
Later, it was discovered that this Buick belonged to the woman in her 80s who was killed at her home in Lyman.
Lyman Investigation
Deputies with the Wayne County Sheriff’s Office responded to a home in Lyman to conduct a welfare check on the woman in her 80s. They said they found blood marks in her front room and drag marks leading out of the home.
They found the woman dead in a cellar under a shed on the property.
“It appeared the female was moved using a wheelbarrow,” court documents state.
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Finding Miller
Officers spoke with one of the husbands of the victims who owned the Subaru, and used an app to track the location of the key fob in New Mexico and then Colorado.
Colorado law enforcement was notified and observed the Subaru at a gas station in Pagosa with a white man, described as being approximately six feet tall with dark, shaggy hair.
The Subaru was later found abandoned, and the man had fled on foot.
Officers worked to secure the vehicle and found a cellphone plugged into the center console, as well as a magazine for a handgun with what appeared to be .45-caliber ammunition and 20-gauge shotgun shells — the same found at the trailhead.
At approximately 2:45 a.m., Pagosa law enforcement had the suspect in custody and identified him as Miller.
He had a Rock Island brand 1911 model .45-caliber pistol with him, court documents state. Law enforcement also found him with financial cards belonging to the two women found dead at the trailhead.
Miller explained that he hit an elk in Loa, Utah, a few days before. He said he sold his truck to a towing company and stayed in an area hotel for a few days.
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After coming to Lyman, Miller said he stayed the night in a back shed where the woman in her 80s was later found.
He said he saw an “old lady” drive away in a Buick, so he entered her home, waited for her behind a door, and shot her in the back of the head with the 1911 while she was sitting down watching television
Miller said he cleaned up the scene the best he could, dragged her out to the shed, and further down into the basement, where he left her.
He said he grabbed his things and took the car, but “did not like the car and wanted to find a different vehicle.”
He was parked when he reportedly noticed the two women in their 30s and 60s get out of a white Subaru.
“Miller said that he went up to them and shot the younger one in what he thought was the chest and she went down,” court documents state. “Miller then shot the other one twice in the body but that she was still moving. Miller then stabbed her multiple times in the ‘heart.'”
He admitted to dragging both of the victims to a ditch and laying them next to one another.
Miller said he killed the women because he needed money. He claimed that he intended to use the vehicle to get back to Iowa and had stopped in Pagosa to get gas.
He confessed that the killings “had to be done,” but did not like to do it.
When asked what he did with the knife he used to stab the woman at the trailhead, he pulled it out.
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