A suspected serial killer all but admitted Monday he was responsible for the death of a transient in Grand County four years ago, police say.
Joseph Silveria, 36, shared incriminating details of the crime with Grand County sheriff's detective John McGann during a three-hour interview in California."He gave us information we believe ties him to the scene. But he didn't actually confess. He just wouldn't step over that line . . . he did everything but tell us he did it," McGann said.
Silveria is accused of killing eight transients last year while riding freight trains across the Western United States. Utah detectives said he has also confessed to allegedly killing Roger Lee Bowman in Salt Lake City last April.
McGann hopes the interview helps him clear Grand County's only unsolved murder in recent history.
"We now have to go back and look at the evidence, talk to some other people and put it all together. Then we'll possibly go to the county attorney on charges," he said.
Darren R. Miller, 29, was found beaten to death in a sleeping bag in Thompson Springs, off I-80, in July 1992. McGann said investigators suspected two men in the killing; witnesses provided a description of one of the suspects, which matches Silveria, he said. Investigators have not yet located the second suspect.
A law enforcement bulletin from Kansas last December put McGann on Silveria's trail. It contained a description of a rail hobo killing "that matched our case down to the minute details," he said.
However, like several other detectives across the nation, McGann had no idea where to find Silveria. Railroad security officers last week finally caught up with the man, arresting him in yards near Roseville, Calif.
News of his capture prompted several inquiries from police agencies in Oregon, Arizona, Kansas, Montana, California and Washington. Friday, Silveria waived extradition to Oregon, where he is charged with the murder of a man last December.
Silveria has not been charged with any crime in Utah.