A man found dead in an Ohio river two months ago has been identified as the primary suspect in a Utah murder, Salt Lake County homicide detectives say.
Police in Columbus, Ohio, fished the body of Richard Loveless out of the Olentangy River in late July. At that time, they could not identify the man, but a picture was circulated and a psychologist recog-nized him.Loveless was accused in the beating death of Patricia Hutch, 49, who was killed inside her Salt Lake condominium in April.
"We believe that he abandoned his car here in Salt Lake and subsequently went out to Patricia Hutch's residence and murdered her and stole her car," Salt Lake County Sheriff's Sgt. Jerry Townsend said.
Townsend said Loveless then apparently went to a doctor in Ohio and told him he wanted to commit suicide by jumping into the river.
"That's the basis of assuming it's a suicide," he said. "I'm personally satisfied that he's our suspect in this murder, but it would be nice to have a suicide note or something he's confessing to."
Columbus police are cooperating with Salt Lake investigators to try to determine a link to the murder. They also are trying to find out where Loveless was living in hopes of finding some sort of evidence there.