An Iowa madman accused of killing an elderly woman at her home, stealing her car and slaughtering two more on a Utah hiking trail was captured after a multi-state manhunt, authorities said.
Ivan Miller, 22, was nabbed Thursday morning in Colorado with a handgun and large knife after the grisly discovery of three slain victims in Wayne County a day earlier triggered a frantic search for the triple homicide suspect, according to the Utah Department of Safety.
The horror unfolded Wednesday afternoon when two husbands found their wives – one woman in her 30s, the other in her 30s – dead on a hiking trail near Capitol Reef National Park, Utah Highway Patrol spokesperson Lt. Cameron Roden told reporters.
The spouses also told police one vehicle was missing and they didn’t recognize the other left behind.
A search of the car led cops to the Lyman home of the third victim – a woman in her 80s – who investigators believe was killed first before the suspect swiped her car, drove to the trail and later ditched it for one of the murdered wives’ vehicles, Roden said.
Using license plate readers and vehicle tracking services, authorities traced the suspect traveling from Utah through northern Arizona to Pagosa Springs, Colorado, where he abandoned the car.
Miller, of Blakesburg, Iowa, was then taken into custody after a brief search, police said.
He is being held at the Archuleta County Detention Center in Pagosa Springs on suspicion of carrying a concealed weapon, jail records show.
Police have not revealed a motive and said the alleged killer has no known connection to the three victims, describing the slayings as crimes of “convenience,” Roden said.
Cops are also probing what Miller was doing in the Beehive State before the killings and when he arrived.
Miller is expected to make his first court appearance Friday afternoon.
With Post wires