The Deck - Kathy Jones-Harmon (10 of Hearts, Utah)

Episode Date: October 18, 2023

Our card this week is Kathy Jones-Harmon, the 10 of Hearts from Utah.Kathy was a 22-year-old newlywed living in Salt Lake City in 1976, forging her own path in a town that often seemed to value conformity over individuality. By all accounts Kathy had a reputation for being tough – definitely no shrinking violet. So no one was particularly worried about her fending for herself when her husband Dave left town on his rig for his most recent long-haul trek through the rugged Mountain West. And besides, Kathy had a solid group of friends to look out for her, including her roommate Vickie.But Vickie couldn’t stay with Kathy 24/7 – and on the evening of March 2nd, when Kathy was left alone, something was set into motion that remains a mystery to this day.If you know anything about the murder of Kathy Jones-Harmon in Salt Lake City, Utah in March of 1976, please call Unified Police Detective Ben Pender at 385-468-9816. To apply for the Cold Case Playing Cards grant through Season of Justice, visit www.seasonofjustice.org.Let us deal you in… follow The Deck on social media.Instagram: @thedeckpodcast | @audiochuckTwitter: @thedeckpodcast_ | @audiochuckFacebook: /TheDeckPodcast | /audiochuckllc The Deck is hosted by Ashley Flowers. Instagram: @ashleyflowersTikTok: @ashleyflowerscrimejunkieTwitter: @Ash_FlowersFacebook: /AshleyFlowers.AF Follow The Deck on social media and join Ashley’s community by texting [phone] to stay up to date on what's new!

Our card this week is Kathy Jones-Harmon, the 10 of Harks from Utah. Kathy was a 22-year-old newlywed living in Salt Lake City in 1976, forging her own path in a town that often seemed to value conformity over individuality. By all accounts, Kathy had a reputation for being tough, definitely no shrinking violet. By all accounts, Kathy had a reputation for being tough, definitely no shrinking violet. So no one was particularly worried about her fending for herself when her husband Dave left town on his rig for his most recent long haul trek through the rugged mountain west. And besides, Kathy had a solid group of friends to look out for her, including her roommate Vicki.

But Vicki couldn't stay with Kathy 24-7. And on the evening of March 2nd, when Kathy was left alone, something was set into motion that remains a mystery to this very day. I'm Ashley Flowers, and this is The Deck. . It was a frigid Utah night in early March and Kathy and her roommate Vicki were doing their best to usher in some better days. Or should I say some warmer days. But better days was the name of the bar they were at, the better days bar. It was a small place, you know, the kind of place where everyone knows your name.

They were just hanging out at Better Days, it was a place they frequented, they appeared to know everybody there, as far as the employees and owner of the Better Days. That's Detective Ben Pender with the Unified Police Department of Greater Salt Lake. Pender told us that around 11 p.m., Vicki decided to call it a night, because the next day for her was going to be a long one. When Kathy said that she was going to hang out for a bit, I don't think it even occurred to Vicki to worry about her getting home safely. For one, their apartment was just blocked away, but even more than that, she also already

figured out a ride home. So Kathy remained at better days, according to the owner of the bar. He indicated that he offered to give Kathy a ride home after they closed up and he was able to clean up. Just in case Kathy didn't want to sit and wait around, Vicki left her own heavy winter coat with her so that she wouldn't have to walk in just the light denim jacket she had with her. So Vicki took off, heading for the warmth of her boyfriend's place, which actually

technically was about to be her place, too, because she was in the process of moving out of the apartment she shared with Kathy and Dave, and into the new place with her boyfriend. When Vicki stopped by her old place the next morning, Wednesday, March 3rd, nothing looked to miss. Kathy had obviously made it home safely because her purse and Vicki's coat were there, but Kathy wasn't. Not too worrisome though, Vicki assumed she'd already left for work.

But unbeknownst to Vicki in that moment, Kathy wasn't at work. Now what's strange is that Kathy had actually missed work the day before too. And when she didn't show, her mom got a call, which maybe wouldn't happen in most workplaces, like they're not calling mommy on a dime, but in Kathy's case, her employer was also her uncle. He owned the store that she worked at.

So her family was beginning to get worried by the third, which is when they called Kathy's apartment. It was Vicki who answered, but I think she was able to put the family's mind at ease, at least temporarily. Sure, Kathy might not be around today, but she was also a no-call no-show yesterday, and Vicki had been with her at the bar just last night. So she didn't know why she was being flaky, but she knew she was okay. So everyone went about their lives, sure that Kathy would pop back up just like she'd done

the night before, but she didn't. So that same day, Vicki called her family back. According to Kathy's brother, whose name is Whitney, they were actually notified on Wednesday from Vicki. The Kathy had not returned back to the apartment. And so they actually went over to the apartment and looked through it as well. And they didn't see any type of struggle. And they both stated that they weren't aware of any problems that Kathy was having as

far as they knew. But they couldn't shake the feeling that something was up. So around 9 o'clock that night, they called the Salt Lake City Police Department and reported Kathy missing. Detectives talked to Vicki right away, and she gave them the same sequence of events that she had given to Kathy's family. That she'd lasting Kathy around 11pm at the better days bar, but that she was pretty sure Kathy had made it home that night.

The police jumped right into a canvas of Kathy's neighborhood, and right off the bat, they heard a couple of stories that piqued their interest. Like one from a neighbor named Debbie who told them while she hadn't heard or seen anything amiss, a male acquaintance of her said that he'd overheard Kathy arguing with someone in her apartment the night she went missing. But when detectives tracked this guy down, he wasn't totally clear about the timeline. He had indicated that he had heard Kathy and someone arguing, but thought it was a couple of days prior. So once they were able to locate him, he didn't think it was that evening that she went missing.

He thought it was a couple of days prior. He said he thought it was maybe Monday, but then he did indicate it could have been Tuesday, but he wasn't sure. He didn't indicate if it was a male or a female, but he said it sounded like there was some type of argument going on down there. They also spoke to a neighbor named Carol, who lived directly above Kathy. And Carol had a slightly different take on what she heard coming from Kathy's apartment

that night. Carol Jones lived directly above Kathy, and she was positive she heard some moaning from what she believed to be Kathy's bedroom. She indicated she did not hear any arguing or fighting. Meanwhile, Kathy's husband Dave was also getting worried from the road. He had checked in with Kathy every single day, and when he hadn't been able to reach her, he called his employer and said that he needed to get home STAT because something wasn't

right. Dave drove from Colorado and was back in Salt Lake City by the fifth when he showed up at the police department with a friend of his and Kathy's by the name of Cricht. By that point, he'd already been home to their apartment. And when detectives asked him if it looked like anything was missing, the only thing he mentioned was Kathy's denim jacket, although he thought maybe she had a bit of money on her for rent and groceries. Detectives also interviewed Van, the bar owner from Better Days, the next day, so this

would be in the sixth. And you guys, I know what you're thinking, because I was right there with you, like how could they not have interviewed Van immediately? Because he was the one who offered to give Kathy a ride home, and she had accepted. But I don't know why, I don't have a good answer. Either way, he confirmed that Kathy had been there with Vicki the night of the second, even admitting that he'd offered Kathy that right home the night she disappeared. And initially, Kathy had indicated that she

was going to take Van up on that offer for a right home since she wanted to stay later than Vicki. He had mentioned to her that he was willing to give her right home and she had accepted that so he just assumed that once they were done closing up and cleaning up, that she'd still be hanging around there. But by the time Van had finished his bar, he noticed that Kathy was gone, so he just figured that she had figured it another way home and left, and didn't really think much of it.

I'm not sure how hard detectives looked into van, but it seems like they had a couple of reasons to quickly rule him out. For one, his wife was there at the bar with him the night Kathy disappeared, and it seems like she corroborated his account. They'd offer Kathy right home, but she'd left before they closed up. According to Detective Pendor, it wasn't unusual for Van to offer rides to patrons. And he'd even given Kathy rides in the past. But another reason they stopped looking at him was because he told detectives that even though he hadn't seen Kathy leave that night, other patrons

had. And they all say that she left alone around midnight. Eventually detectives were able to confirm this as well. By this time, three whole days had passed since Kathy vanished, and they seemed no closer to finding out where she went and how she got there. But the question of where actually wouldn't remain a mystery for very long. Because that day around noon, detectives with the Salt Lake County Sheriff's Office got word of a grisly scene just outside the city. A hiker and his dog had been out in the canyons and had come across a woman's body discarded in a snow. So they arrived at the scene and actually got down to

the location. They found a female body partially stretched out with both arms under her chest portion and her head resting down towards the ground on her arms. She had her head towards the south and her feet were towards the north, and her left leg was across the right leg. She was frozen, only partially clothed, clad in a turquoise shirt or body suit, a denim jacket, underwear, and socks with her jewelry still on, but her pants were nowhere to be seen. Now it was clear she hadn't ended up there by choice,

and it was equally clear that she'd put up a fight. It appears that she was dragged down this side of the mountain there. It almost appears maybe there was some type of a struggle on her behalf as well. The lower half of her body had bruises, scratch marks, looks like scratches on her legs, on her knees. She suffered a skull contusion, but no skull fracture and they indicated the contusion was minor. It appeared that she had been strangled. In addition to what could only be described as drag marks through the snow, there was one set of discernible chuprints coming down the mountain leading to her body.

And then, what appeared to be the same set of chuprints going back up the mountain away from the scene. For a short period of time, Kathy existed in a kind of ephemeral state of both being and not being, existing and not existing. Because to detectives with a sheriff's office, she was an unidentified Jane Doe, and to everyone looking for her in Salt Lake City, she was still a missing person. But by 5 PM, those two investigations would collide, and the items they eventually located at the scene

discarded jeans turned inside out, cash and a set of keys in her jacket pocket, weren't the Do's items anymore. They were Kathies. Her body was then transported by ambulance to the Medical Examiner's office near downtown Salt Lake, where Dave and Vicki had to perform the unenviable task of identification. The medical examiner performed his autopsy that same evening, concluding that the injuries to her body were a mix of anti-mortem and post-mortem, meaning before and after death, and he determined that she had indeed been strangled with what he characterized as a, quote,

broad, flat instrument, possibly a forearm, end quote. According to reporting in the Daily Herald, swabs were taken to test for the presence of semen, although sexual assault was already strongly suspected from the state of her body and the fact that her pants had been removed. Now, obviously, detectives needed to re-interview everyone. Not only had the case classification changed, but it was now being investigated by the Sheriff's Office since her body was found in their jurisdiction. And they wanted to get everyone's stories for themselves, starting with her husband,

Dave. But once it was confirmed that Dave was, in fact, nowhere near Salt Lake City on March 2nd and 3rd, he was pretty much ruled out. What they still needed from him, though, was whether he knew of anybody with a motive to harm Kathy. And apparently he did. You see, when Dave wasn't on the road, he served as a president of a local chapter

of a quote unquote outlaw gang called the Sundowners Motorcycle Club. He talked about that altercation Kathy had, but he said it was a few months ago, and it took place at the Sundowners Clubhouse. And according to the information, Kathy was threatened by another party to the point that they would retaliate in a vicious manner.

What's strange about this tip is that there's not really any indication that it was followed up on. This person who made the threat, who Detective Pender says was a female, isn't even named in the investigative file. And I would assume the fact that this person was female might be a reason for the lack of follow-up? Maybe the only reason even, because even though the Emmy swabs eventually came back without detecting the presence of semen, detectives were sure as ever that Kathy's death had a sexual component, if not being sexually motivated, and the Emmy agreed. Now that wasn't the only altercation Dave mentioned.

Although this next one seemed to have produced a similar lack of follow-up, likely for similar reasons. He called one of the detectives almost midnight and stated that approximately three weeks ago, Kathy actually got into a fight with a female at a better days bar and thought maybe this could possibly have something to do with his wife's problems, but he didn't elaborate as far as who the person was or what the fight was over. We don't even know if the altercation at the Sundowners Clubhouse and the altercation at Better Days were the same person or not. I myself am very interested in this second one specifically, especially knowing that

better days is the place that Kathy was last seen. But we know she didn't get into any fights the last night she was there, so I don't know. And by the way, when our reporter tried to get a sense of the Sundowners Club and asked Detective Pender where he thought they fell on the spectrum between like veteran bikers who did charity rides and more infamous biker games like the Hell's Angels, Detective Pender, where he thought they fell on the spectrum between veteran bikers who did charity rides and more infamous biker gangs like the Hells Angels, Detective Pender firmly placed them in the gangcane. But that being said, they weren't known to cause a ton of trouble, and Detective Pender

wasn't aware of any particularly violent activities that they had been involved in. But there might be one other reason for the lack of follow-up, especially on this second tip. And it might have something to do with two massive developments that took place the Monday following Kathy's death. One was a tip from a friend of Kathy's who thought that detectives should look into Kathy's relationship with a man who will call J.M., which seemed to be more than platonic. But perhaps even more shockingly, Salt Lake City was rocked that day with yet another brunal murder,

when the beaten body of another young woman was found. This time, the woman was found in an abandoned trailer behind a recovery residence, which was associated with the Utah State Prison System. She was soon ideed as 24-year-old Carolyn Sarkeesian. Her case fell under Salt Lake City Police Department's jurisdiction, who determined that Carolyn had been abducted off the street while walking to meet her boyfriend the night before. She'd been sexually assaulted like they presumed Kathy was, and the apparent similarities only grew when an autopsy confirmed that she too had been strangled.

So the investigations ran on an almost parallel track, Kathy's by the Sheriff's Office, and Carolins by the PD. And it's unclear how much they truly overlapped. Regardless, public sentiment quickly bent towards Cathies and Carolins' cases being connected. But meanwhile, detectives with the Sheriff's Office were busy trying to track down J.M. But, as promising as that tip about him originally seemed, he apparently had an alibi. He was with another individual it looks like, and said like their stories were very similar

as far as where they were at, what they were doing. I'm a little surprised they ruled J.M. out so quickly, given the neighbors reports of hearing both arguing and moaning coming from Kathy's apartment in the days leading up to her disappearance. Because, I mean, we know Dave had been gone for a couple of days by that point. And one thing detective suspected throughout Kathy's case was that she was likely abducted by someone she knew. I mean, Dave even thought so too. He didn't indicate why. He thought that he just thought that she probably wouldn't want somebody she knew.

And that makes sense to me as well, because again, she did make it back to her apartment. There was no signs of any struggle inside of her apartment. And by leaving her jacket, leaving her purse, it almost appears as though wherever she went or whoever she went with, that she thought she'd be back fairly soon. And didn't really need that for whatever reason. Kathy's case was pretty stagnant until March 24th of the following year, when it got a little boost of hope after detectives received a tip from an inmate at the local jail. So one of the inmates thought maybe they heard something from another inmate who they believe

could have been involved, but detectives have followed up on that and found that that was not substantiated. Another dead end. And honestly, the investigation into Carolyn's case wasn't shaping up to be much better. Both were on the fast track to being ice cold, and they stayed that way for decades. All the way up until the summer of 2004, when the Salt Lake City Police Department

got a DNA hit on samples taken from Carolyn's body, leading them to a convicted sex offender, named Gail Benavides. According to reporting by Matt Cannon with the Salt Lake Tribune, just three months prior to Kathy and Carolyn's deaths, he had been sentenced on sexual assault charges involving a 15-year-old girl. But instead of being sentenced to prison, he was sentenced to stay at a residential treatment center nearby, leaving him with the ability to come and go and kill. Prosecutors brought capital murder charges against Gail for Carolyn's murder, and the arrest

in prosecution generated renewed interest in Kathy's case as well. Additional reporting by Matt Canum for the Salt Lake Tribune indicated that in short order, detectives with the Sheriff's Office had submitted a sample recovered from Kathy's body in hopes that DNA could be recovered and tested against gales. But the results of that effort were never reported on, other than years later, in a 2009 article by Jacob Hancock with the Deseret News. That indicated that any suspected link between the two cases had been ruled out.

This article also mentions that they had in fact recovered DNA from beneath Kathy's fingernails, which I kind of think is probably what they used for comparisons since we know Seaman was never found. But news in 2009 wasn't all bad, because in that same article, Jacob reported that seemingly out of nowhere, detectives had received a tip that they hoped would crack the case wide open. This tip was from a woman with a haunting story involving her boyfriend at the time, who by now had become her husband. She said that one night, way back in 1976, he had come

home with visible scratches on his face, and he gave a strange explanation for the injuries. He claimed that they'd been inflicted by his sister. Now, I don't know what kind of relationship this man had with his sister, or what kind of explanation he gave the girlfriend as to why she would be doing that to him. But this seemed really relevant when you think about where Kathy's attacker might have been scratched, outside an canyon, in the tail end of a freezing Utah winter, probably his neck and face, right? I mean, he was likely pretty bundled up otherwise. But the woman's story didn't even end there because she told detectives that about a week after the scratching incident

that boyfriend came home crying and in an obvious state of distress. And that's when he confessed to her. He said that he and a friend had picked up a girl at a party and they took her up to Emigration Canyon and, quote, had sex with her. Continuing to speak in euphemisms, he said that they had left her there and that she had been found and he felt bad. But if you're paying attention, there's something about that story that doesn't totally line up with what we know. But that doesn't mean it's not possible. Based on the prints of the snow,

at least the information that I can drive from that, it appears one person took her down there, and it appears that same person probably came up as well, in close-in proximity. But I wouldn't roll out a second person, not knowing what their role would be. Maybe their role was just to sit in a car and be able to look out if they were up there in a car,

some type of vehicle, and the other one was gonna take care of disposing Kathy. Detective swiftly applied for a search warrant for the man's DNA based on the woman's story. And although she was now separated from her husband, she was actually present when the warrant was executed at his house. Ambulance had to be called to the scene to treat her for a panic attack. Detectives also obtained a search warrant for the DNA of the man's friend that he was

supposedly with that night. But here's the thing, much like the previous developments in 2004, there is no reporting on what if anything happened next. We asked Detective Pender about this, and that's when he got cryptic. But he suggested that there had been some issues with the private labs that were used back in 2009. That's got some of the challenges we're having with some of the other labs that people will go out and use. I mean, I wasn't part of that, but you know, somebody else at our agency.

We had a grant at one time, so we were using private labs, so I understand why they did, but we just didn't get good information back. I have to wonder, are we talking not good as in not a match, not good as in inconclusive? Maybe not good as in it was a match, but the prosecutor won't use it because the lab wasn't approved. I've actually seen that happen before, by the way. I don't know what the situation is, but I know it's complicated. Because even though that article from 2009 said there was DNA, the truth of the matter isn't that straightforward according to Pender.

It's mixed, so it's going to be challenging, and that's why we're still working on it, because currently we're having a difficult time getting them separated out and being able to positively identify somebody. So we do have enough DNA for exclusionary purposes only, so we can do like a one-to-one comparison, but nothing right now that we're able to proceed with investigative genetic genealogy or things like that. But again, technology is changing and has changed, and so we're revisiting this case and trying to see now what can we do with what we, even from 2009, what can be done today.

So those are things that are currently in the works right now with our state lab. You know, my biggest question is, have they run any direct comparisons with the man and his friend? But I honestly can't say. But despite all the challenges and setbacks that have plagued this case over the years, Detective Pender remains hopeful that it will get solved. It is very hopeful. And like I say, with the way technology is and the advancements that are happening a lot faster now than we've seen ever, I'm hopeful that we can at least progress this case forward if not resolve it, obviously the end goal is to resolve the case.

We asked him what us regular people can do to help finally solve Kathy's case. And I truly believe that in most of these cases, somebody has heard something or know something and maybe holding back, but, you know, out of fairness to Kathy and to her family and to her husband and really to our community, I would always encourage people to come forward and provide whatever information.

I mean, a lot of times some people tend to believe it's so small, or wouldn't really make a difference, but that could be the small piece of puzzle we're looking for that's going to put this case together and get it started down the line to get resolved. His other request applies to not just solving Cathy's case, but to solving cold cases nationwide. My other suggestion would be investigative genetic genealogy. If you have tested your DNA in any of those sites, whether it be 23 and me or ancestry, and are willing to upload that into Jedmatch or Family tree, and check the box

allowing law enforcement to utilize this information. That's very helpful, not only for me, but it's helpful for other cases. I tend to believe in time. This case may qualify. It's just a matter of some technology that we need to do some things and hopefully at that point we'll be able to, but the more people that participate in that and are willing to be a genetic witness, the more these cases are going to get solved. For nearly five decades, Kathy Jones-Harman and her family

have been denied any sort of justice, any sort of closure, any sort of answers to the horrible question that haunts them. The question of who took her life so brutally all those years ago. I still go back to it was somebody's wife, it was someone's daughter, somebody's sister, and it's a human being, and nobody deserves what happened to Kathy. If you know anything about the murder of Kathy Jones-Harmann in Salt Lake City,

Utah, in March of 1976, please call Unified Police Detective Ben Pender at 385-468-9816. The Debt is an audio-truck production with theme music by Ryan Lewis. To learn more about the deck and our advocacy work, visit thedeckpodcast.com. So what do you think, Chuck? Do you approve? AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH