A Southern Utah State College coed was being held Thursday in the Iron County Jail on accusations of lying to lawmen investigating the abduction-murder of a Cedar City man, authorities said.
Cedar City police and Millard County deputies Wednesday night arrested a woman they said was the girlfriend of Lance Conway Wood, 20, one of two suspects in the slaying of Gordon Ray Church.Paula Sue Jones, 22, an SUSC senior, is accused of obstruction of justice, authorities said. Iron County Sheriff Ira Schoppman said she was being held on $5,000 bail.
Wood and Michael Anthony Archuleta, 26, had been staying in a Cedar City apartment with Jones and another woman just before Church's Nov. 21 disappearance, said Parole Officer Ron Wodehouse.
The two accused kidnap-murderers, who were paroled Oct. 11 from the Utah State Prison after serving time for unrelated charges, were being held in the Millard County Jail without bail.
The body of Church, a 28-year-old SUSC student, was discovered Nov. 23 about a mile from I-15.
Wood and Archuleta are charged with first-degree murder, aggravated kidnapping, assault and auto theft.