Iowa Man Ivan Miller Arrested After Three Women Found Dead in Utah

Ivan W. Miller, 22, of Blakesburg, Iowa, was arrested in Pagosa Springs, Colorado, early March 5 after three women were found dead in Wayne County, Utah, authorities said. Wayne County prosecutors filed three counts of aggravated murder in 6th District Court, and Miller was initially booked in Archuleta County, Colorado, on weapons charges before Utah authorities took custody.

The three victims were discovered March 4 in separate locations: one woman in her 80s was found dead inside a home in Lyman, and two women were found dead along the Cockscomb Trail just off State Route 12 between Torrey and Teasdale near Capitol Reef National Park. Utah Highway Patrol Lt. Cameron Roden said the hikers’ husbands alerted authorities after going to the trail and reporting a vehicle missing from the trailhead; officials have not released the victims’ names.

Charging documents and local reporting lay out an alleged sequence of events. Prosecutors say Miller left Iowa about two and a half weeks earlier on a solo trip, hit an elk in Utah several days before the killings and was temporarily without a vehicle after selling his truck to a tow company. Authorities allege Miller spent the night in a shed on the property of the first victim, then shot the elderly woman inside her Lyman home and stole her Buick. He reportedly parked that Buick at the nearby trailhead, encountered two hikers who exited a Subaru, killed them and took the Subaru.

Investigators allege Miller attempted to conceal the hikers’ bodies in a dry creek bed and placed them side by side. Law enforcement processed two crime scenes, one at the Lyman residence and one at the Cockscomb Trail, with assistance from the Utah Department of Public Safety, the Utah State Bureau of Investigation and the Utah Crime Lab.

Pagosa Springs Police located and detained a suspect in the early hours of March 5. "At approximately 2:41 am PSPD Assistant Chief Brown located a subject matching the suspect description. Asst. Chief Brown detained the suspect later identified as 23‑year‑old Ivan Miller," the Pagosa Springs Police Department wrote in a social post quoted by news outlets. Upon a frisk and detention, officers reportedly found a concealed handgun and a large knife on Miller; Archuleta County booking records show he was booked on those weapons charges while investigators in Colorado linked him to the Utah killings.

Prosecutors say Miller confessed after his arrest, telling investigators he killed the three women so he could steal their cars and credit cards because he needed money to get back to Iowa. Charging documents quoted Miller as saying "it had to be done," and that "he did not like to do it." Investigators also allege bank and credit cards belonging to the victims were found in Miller’s wallet and that license-plate readers helped track one of the stolen vehicles from southern Utah into northern Arizona and into Colorado, where it was abandoned in Pagosa Springs.

The Utah Department of Public Safety emphasized the contained nature of the incident: "There are no ongoing threats to the public, and investigators have no outstanding suspects." Miller now faces first-degree aggravated murder charges in 6th District Court as Wayne County and Utah investigators continue processing evidence and working to finalize timelines and cause-of-death determinations.