Investigators journeyed to the FBI's laboratories this past week, hoping to expedite charges in the slaying of four members of a West Jordan family eight months ago.
Meanwhile, their main suspect in the baffling case, husband and father Sam Kastanis, is talking about going fishing.Officially, most law enforcement officials will say only that the investigation into the killings of Margaret Kastanis and her three children is continuing.
Privately, however, they complain of frustrating delays in processing evidence they hope will lead to charges being filed.
The 43-year-old Kastanis, meantime, continues to enjoy the support of relatives, including his slain wife's family, who find it impossible to believe him capable of the crimes.
"Sam was just here yesterday," said Orren Jenkins, Margaret Kastanis' father. "He's holding up really good, but then he's never been one to complain."
Kastanis was arrested and released shortly after the homicides and has since returned to his job with Salt Lake County public works.
Some investigators believe the case could have been solved if an interview with Kastanis hadn't been interrupted by a public defender.
Prosecutors maintain the lawyer had not been appointed to defend Kastanis and had no right to advise him to stop talking to police. They were so angry that they considered filing a complaint with the Utah State Bar.
Still, state's attorneys say murder charges should be filed soon.
"It's been a long time coming," said Bud Ellett, who heads the Salt Lake County attorney's Justice Division. "Let's just say, keep your pencil at the ready."
But that's the same tune lawmen have been singing since last Nov. 17, when firefighters responding to a call of a mere finger laceration stumbled into a virtual slaughterhouse. The bodies of three of the victims - the 38-year-old Mrs. Kastanis and daughters Kristy, 6, and Melissa, 11 - were found huddled in a basement bedroom where the knife-wielding assailant had chased them.
Nine-year-old Clint Kastanis was found in an upstairs bathroom awash in blood. He had died from "multiple blunt- and sharp-force injuries to the head," according to an autopsy.
Police arrested the 43-year-old Kastanis for investigation of homicide. A booking statement said a knife and hammer were found next to one of the victims and that there was no evidence of forced entry.
Investigators found the family's domestic life unusual, even bizarre.
They found chain locks on the children's bedroom doors and the 6-year-old daughter was still in diapers. Sources have said Kastanis had apparently slept in the home's washroom for a number of years.
Kastanis told officers he had been working outside and saw or heard nothing.
Law enforcement officials, however, questioned him at length after his arrest and some believe he eventually may have confessed had not the Salt Lake County Legal Defenders' Association intervened.
Ellett maintains the defenders' office, a publicly funded organization that provides free legal services to indigent defendants, had no authority to counsel Kastanis.
"Yes, we were mad," said Ellett.
Association director F. John Hill said attorney Lynn Brown went to the jail only after receiving a telephone call from Kastanis' sister. He said he obtained permission from presiding 3rd Circuit Judge Floyd Gowans before involving his office.
Brown confirms he cautioned Kastanis against making further statements to detectives.
The lack of a confession has left investigators to rely on physical evidence, particularly blood-spatter and other serological data.
It's been a complicated task further muddled by a lethargic response by the FBI laboratory, according to law enforcement sources who spoke on condition of anonymity.
"This may not be big potatoes to them, but we've got a quadruple homicide here," one source said. "It's frustrating."
Case detectives were at the laboratory in Quantico, Va., this past week to discuss the case, prod the agency's forensic experts and shepherd the remaining evidence. "There are still some tests to be run," Ellett said.
Much of the case apparently hinges on efforts to reconstruct the crime from blood spatters throughout the house and on clothing. The case involves hundreds of individual blood samples, sources said.