There appears to be a break finally, in a nearly three- year-old murder case. A suspect is in jail in St. Louis, accused of other murders similar to that of a University of Utah student. News Specialist Sam Penrod has more.
Detectives from Salt Lake want to question a man being held in a St. Louis jail, suspected of murdering three women in Missouri. And investigators believe they have evidence that will help them to finally solve this case.
Amy Quinton, 21, was a drama major at the University of Utah. She was close to graduating from the U. three years ago, when she was stabbed to death during a home invasion. The intruder went through a sliding glass door that had been left open, and confronted Quinton's roommate and a friend.
While Quinton tried to call 911, her call was cut off. When a police dispatcher called back, the killer answered the phone, and his voice recorded on tape gave investigators one of their only leads.
"HELLO." "SO WHY DON'T YOU TELL ME WHAT THE PROBLEM IS."
Quinton's friends helped create a composite sketch, and police found the suspect had used credit cards stolen during the attack in Park City and Colorado. But police efforts yielded few answers, until recently.
DNA results linked 36- year-old Donald Young to a rape near the University of Utah three years before Amy was murdered. Salt Lake detectives tracked down Young in a St. Louis jail, where he is charged with killing three women, two years ago.
They've also placed him in Salt Lake during August 1999. Police aren't talking publicly about what evidence they have against Young, but appear confident it is strong enough to add new momentum in finding Amy Quinton's killer.
The District Attorney's office say it is interersted in what evidence the police department is gathering in the case, to see if it is strong enough to file murder charges. Again, police seem encouraged with the direction the investigation is going.
July 31, 2002
