Police have recovered jungle boots, keys, gloves and tennis shoes that may link a Midvale volunteer firefighter to the brutal slaying of a West Jordan woman.
The evidence was seized last week from a storage unit rented in January 1992 by Michael S. Decorso.Prosecutors charged him Monday with aggravated murder, a capital offense, in the death of Margaret Ann Martinez.
Martinez, a mother of two, was found dead in a West Jordan Payless Shoesource store Feb. 15. She had been smothered, repeatedly stabbed with scissors and her body left in a rear storage area of the store, 7915 S. Redwood.
The killer also slashed her clothing from her body, bound her legs and ankles in duct tape and scrawled the initials "TSG" on a wall, using her blood.
Police and state crime lab officials eventually tagged Decorso to the crime using a single fingerprint lifted from a piece of the tape on the woman's pant leg.
The underpinnings of the state's case emerge in two search-warrant returns filed Tuesday in 3rd Circuit Court.
The first reveals that criminologists have plucked 20 hair samples,drawn a single blood sample and obtained seven handwriting samples from Decorso since he's been in the Salt Lake County Jail.
"A microscopic examination and DNA testing can determine whether or not the characteristics of the hair (found on Martinez) is consistent with Michael Scott Decorso," the warrant states.
Investigators also hope handwriting analysis will reveal whether the bloody initials match those drawn in the samples by Decorso.
The second search-warrant return lists 216 separate items seized from the Stor-N-Lock storage units at 7303 S. 300 West.
Detectives recovered pornographic magazines, at least two pistols and knives and more than two dozen books with titles like "Secrets of the Ninja" and "Guns of the Elite."
Women's panties, a size 36D bra and plastic gloves also littered the small unit.
Also found were boots, white tennis shoes and keys.
Believing Martinez's final customer was likely also her killer, police released in January previously undisclosed details about the crime, including the specifics about Martinez's final sale of the night - a pair of size 101/2 work boots and size 10 tennis shoes.
The suspect also made off with a burgundy-colored First Security cash bag.
The search warrant does not list the size of the boots or shoes recovered from the unit and does not indicate whether the footwear came from Payless.
Detectives and prosecutors were not available for comment at press time.