Utah
Utah mom accused of killing National Guard husband enters plea as police search for body
A Utah mom accused of killing her husband in September 2024 pleaded not guilty to nine counts earlier this month as officials continue to search for the Utah National Guardsman’s body, according to local news.
Jennifer Gledhill pleaded not guilty to charges of first-degree murder, five counts of obstruction of justice, possession of a controlled substance with intent to distribute, abuse of a human body and tampering with a witness, filed in Salt Lake County, in connection with Matthew Johnson’s disappearance and presumed death.
Gledhill appeared in court on Feb. 6, wearing a navy jumpsuit and shackles with her hair tied in a bun. She waived her right to a preliminary hearing, FOX 13 Salt Lake City reported.
Court documents obtained by Fox News Digital last year state that Gledhill was “very calculating in her crimes in that she arranged for the children to stay with her parents during the evening Matthew was killed” around Sept. 20, 2024, when he was last seen.
UTAH MOM SHOT MISSING NATIONAL GUARD HUSBAND IN HIS SLEEP, SUGGESTED LOVER ‘TAKE IT TO THE GRAVE’: POLICE
Jennifer Gledhill appeared in court on Feb. 6, wearing a navy jumpsuit and shackles with her hair tied in a bun. (FOX 13 Salt Lake City)
Her parents, Thomas and Rosalie Gledhill, face obstruction of justice charges.
Johnson was initially considered missing for days when a member of the Utah National Guard contacted the Cottonwood Heights Police Department on Sept. 25 asking for a wellness check on Johnson, stating he had not come into work, “which was very unusual,” a probable cause affidavit states.
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On Sept. 28, Gledhill reported her husband missing to police, saying she had not heard from him since Sept. 20. She also claimed “Matthew told her that he was going to be gone for a week and not to call him.” She seemed “distracted and at times nervous” during the call, according to court documents.
Jennifer Gledhill pleaded not guilty to charges of first-degree murder, five counts of obstruction of justice, possession of a controlled substance with intent to distribute, abuse of a human body and tampering with a witness, filed in Salt Lake County, in connection with Matthew Johnson’s murder. (FOX 13 Salt Lake City)
An informant then came forward to police with information about Gledhill, saying he was having an extramarital affair with her. He told Cottonwood Heights police that on Sunday, Sept. 22, Gledhill came over to his house and told him that she was “likely going away for a long time.”
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Gledhill apparently told her lover that she and Johnson had gotten in a fight on Sept. 20 “because he knew she had been sleeping with someone else,” and allegedly went on to admit to the informant that on the evening of Sept. 21, she shot her husband in the head with his 9 mm Glock “as he slept in their shared bed.”
Matthew Johnson’s friends and family last heard from him on Sept. 21, though he is now presumed dead. (Cottonwood Heights PD)
She allegedly further told her lover “that she loaded Matthew’s body into a rooftop storage container, slid him down the stairs by herself, and loaded him into the back of her minivan.” She said she then transported Johnson’s body “north, dug a hole, and buried him in a shallow grave,” court documents state.
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Johnson’s body has yet to be recovered, though detectives found his truck located 0.3 miles from his home with his cellphone inside the vehicle.
In text and WhatsApp messages, Gledhill allegedly told her lover that if she were told a story like the one she told him, “she would take it to the grave,” the probable cause affidavit says.
Jennifer Gledhill apparently told her lover that she shot her husband in the head. (FOX 13 Salt Lake City)
A neighbor told police that on Sept. 24, she saw Gledhill’s parents inside the home “cleaning” the garage and “moving things around.”
UTAH CHILDREN’S BOOK AUTHOR SENT DAMNING TEXT TO LOVER BEFORE HUBBY POISON PLOT: DOCS
While serving a search warrant at Gledhill’s residence, detectives noticed that the mattress in the master bedroom “appeared to be brand new.”
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“Additionally, the entire wall behind the master bed appeared to have fresh wipe marks from cleaning. Several reddish-brown spots were located on the walls, bed frame, and blinds of the master bedroom. Detectives noted that the wall behind the master bed was covered in bleach,” court documents states.
Gledhill allegedly told her lover “that she loaded Matthew’s body into a rooftop storage container, slid him down the stairs by herself, and loaded him into the back of her minivan.” Gledhill said she transported Johnson’s body “north, dug a hole, and buried him in a shallow grave,” court documents state. (FOX 13 Salt Lake City)
Investigators also noted “a strong smell of chlorine in the basement” and bleach stains on “several stairs” with black carpeting.
MOM OF UTAH AUTHOR ACCUSED OF POISONING HUSBAND POSSIBLY ‘INVOLVED IN PLANNING’ HIS DEATH, POLICE SAY
During a search of the suspect’s vehicle, detectives located bags of what appeared to be drugs that were packaged “for individual sale” and about $200 in cash.
Police also served a search warrant at Gledhill’s parents’ home, where they located a tote bag by the room she would sleep in containing “a Glock 19X gun box (green/tan in color) with one of the handles broken,” which was “wrapped in a child’s onesie.”
Jennifer Gledhill waived her right to a preliminary hearing on Feb. 6. (FOX 13 Salt Lake City)
Gledhill’s cellphone records show that “at no point” after Sept. 21, when her husband last communicated with friends and family, “did she ever attempt to contact” Johnson, prosecutors said.
The suspect’s mother told detectives she went to her daughter’s home on Sept. 24 and admitted to purchasing a new mattress from Amazon at Gledhill’s request.
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When police asked the suspect’s father if he entered the master bedroom, he responded, “I did not go in where the incident happened.”
Gledhill previously made “unsuccessful attempts to secure a protective order against Matthew during the course of their marriage and was found by the Court to be an instigator and one to goad Matthew into a response in order to get him in trouble,” according to records obtained by prosecutors.
Gledhill’s attorney, Jeremy Deus, could not immediately be reached for comment.
Utah
The audacious plan to refill the Great Salt Lake
Long-term drought played a role in the lake’s decline, but about 75% of the problem was human-caused, according to research published in 2022: People had simply been taking too much lake water for decades.
State officials got serious about intervention in 2022. Lawmakers created a $40 million water trust to boost water quality and quantity. They changed Utah water law to designate it a “beneficial use” for farmers to let their allotment flow to the lake, incentivizing donations and water transfers. (Before the change, unused water rights could be lost.)
State officials also raised a berm along a causeway separating the north and south arms of the lake to give them control over the flow of water and salt between the two. Then, fortuitously, twice as much snow fell in the mountains that winter as usual.
Together, those two factors “basically saved the lake” by lowering its salinity, said Kevin Perry, a University of Utah atmospheric scientist who researches the Great Salt Lake and its toxic dust.
“They filled up and diluted all the salt in the southern part of the lake with that huge snowpack,” he said.
Species returned.
“The flies this year were just robust,” Baxter said.
It was enough to avert crisis — at least temporarily.
“We have avoided that environmental nuclear bomb,” said Joel Ferry, director of the Utah Department of Natural Resources. “We have put the red button away.”
But the water levels have not returned to health, and this year’s dismal snowpack could renew the problems.
Utah
2 women were ‘bonding over the beauty of a hike’ when they were killed in Utah, family says
The family of an aunt and her niece who were found dead on a Utah trail earlier this week said Friday that they can’t comprehend why the women were slain in a pair of killings allegedly committed by a stranger in search of money.
In a statement, a family spokesperson for Linda Dewey, 65, and Natalie Graves, 34, said the women were “bonding over the beauty of a hike in one of their favorite places on Earth — cherished by them and the community, considered to be a safe sanctuary.”
“They were murdered,” the spokesperson said. “We cannot comprehend why this happened.”
Authorities have charged Ivan Miller, 22, with aggravated murder in their deaths Wednesday. He was charged with the same crime in the fatal shooting of Margaret Oldroyd, 86, who is not related to Dewey or Graves. Oldroyd’s relatives could not be reached for comment Friday.
The bodies of the three women were found at two locations in South Central Utah.
Charging documents filed Thursday in Utah allege that Miller, of Blakesburg, Iowa, confessed to the killings. He allegedly told authorities that “he did it because he needed money” after hitting an elk in Loa, Utah, selling his truck to a local tow company and staying at a hotel for a few days, according to the documents.
Miller said he shot Oldroyd in the head as she sat down to watch TV in her home in Lyman, then took her Buick but realized he didn’t like the car, the documents allege. He drove to a nearby trail, where he encountered Graves and Dewey and shot them, the documents allege.
Miller allegedly said he stabbed Dewey when she continued to move.
He abandoned the Buick, according to the documents, and took a Subaru that belonged to Dewey or Graves. The husbands of Dewey and Graves later found their bodies near a trail head and called authorities, according to the Utah Department of Public Safety.
Miller was arrested hundreds of miles east, in Pagosa Springs, Colorado, after authorities tracked the location of a stolen key fob, the documents state.
Scott Van Zandt, a public defender representing Miller, said during a court hearing Friday that his client does not want to speak to police or media, the Associated Press reported.
A representative for the Colorado State Public Defender did not immediately respond to an NBC News request for comment Friday night.
In the family statement, Dewey was described as a wife, mother, grandmother and sister with a large extended family all over the world.
“She was loved deeply and loved her family deeply,” the statement says. “She was the heart of our family.”
Graves, a wife, daughter and sister, was “adored by her many friends and extended family members. She was joy, sunshine and beauty embodied.”
“We need time to mourn, love each other and be with our family and friends,” the statement says. “We are at a loss for words that can describe what we are feeling and cannot publicly express our sadness and devastation at this time.”
Utah
The calculus of charity: 20,000-pound LDS donation equals 15,000 meals for 9,000 people
Southern Utah shipment is part of the faith’s yearlong celebration of the Declaration of Independence.
(Mark Eddington | The Salt Lake Tribune) Movers load part of a donation of 20,000 pounds of food to Switchpoint’s St. George food pantry by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints on Thursday, March 5, 2026.
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