http://www.abc4.com/content/about_4...ear-old-cold-case/d64vXFTY4ES7kOuCJX98CA.cspx
30 year old cold case
Reported by:
Brent Hunsaker
Last Update: 1/06 9:12 am
Print Story |
ShareThis
UTAH COUNTY, Utah (ABC 4 News) - Kelly Miller last saw her mother Mary Katherine Miller 30 years ago. On June 20, 1979 they had dinner together a Price's Ice Cream Shop in Provo.
They'd recently learned that Kelly's father -- Mary Katherine's ex-husband -- had died the previous year. Kelly said he mother was upset that no one had bothered to notify them and that she wanted to go find the grave in the American Fork City Cemetery.
When her mother left that evening, Kelly believes she first went to the cemetery and then headed up American Fork Canyon for a drive along the Alpine Loop.
Nearly three weeks later, authorities found her car -- a 1978 brown Honda Civic -- beyond the Timpooneke campground on the back side of Mount Timpanogos. It was actually hidden near a sheep herder's camp. One of the men in that camp is now considered a "person of interest."
That man allegedly told his boss the car belonged to a woman who got it stuck on a rough, rocky dirt road. He allegedly told a friend that the woman had loaned him the car and he was going to drive it down to the Navajo Reservation in the four corners area. And when investigators tracked him down years later, during a polygraph test he told them the woman walked away from the car in a red robe. But that robe was found by investigators in the back seat of the car. Lt. Dennis Harris of the Utah County Sheriff's office said, "My question is ... did she take the red robe off and put it in the car and then walk out?" Along with the robe, investigators also found in the car her purse, wallet and keys.
Lt. Harris believes Mary Katherine Miller met with foul play. Not only did a two day search by the Sheriff's Jeep Patrol fail to turn up any trace, but 30 years of hunters, campers and hikers in the popular recreation area failed to turn up anything. "In my heart I hope we will be able to find something," he said.
He will not be alone. Since the Sheriff reopened the cold case in 2003, the Attorney General's office has also agreed to help.
The stories about Susan Powell, a missing mother from West Valley, have stirred up emotions in Kelly Miller. She said, "I am praying for the people who are waiting to find her because I know sometimes it can be a lifetime."
30 years seems like a lifetime to Kelly who still has no idea what became of her mother. "This was a wonderful woman, a very intelligent woman who put herself through nursing school at BYU and worked as a registered nurse for 20 years," she remembered through tears. "And she just vanished. And I'm sorry, but it is still hard. Even after 30 years, it is still hard."
This spring Lt. Harris plans to organize still more searches of the area where Mary Katherine Miller's car was found. He also hopes to administer another polygraph test to his person of interest. The first test was inconclusive.
If you have any information on the disappearance of Mary Katherine Miller, call the Utah County Sheriff's Office: (801) 404-1919.
