As Deborah Lee Lindsay drove with her father to Evanston, Wyo., she confided that a friend wanted her killed, the father said.
"She said `Dad, this girl's got a contract out on me,' " Robert Lindsay of Oakley said Thursday. "I should never have spaced it off. I should have called the cops, but I didn't."Nine days after the June 15 conversation, two men allegedly strangled 18-year-old Deborah Lee with a bandanna and dumped her in a ravine. The next day, they poured battery acid on her and covered her body with rocks and sage-brush.
A 17-year-old girl was arrested Thursday on a Uinta County warrant for conspiracy to commit murder.
The juvenile was arrested in Summit County, said Uinta County sheriff's Lt. Johnny W. McCoy. She was brought to a Salt Lake juvenile facility where she awaits extradition proceedings Monday. Uinta County prosecutors must also decide whether to prosecute the 17-year-old as an adult or as a juvenile.
Either way, the girl has emerged as the alleged mastermind of a horrific crime.
"They were supposed to be best friends," Robert Lindsay said. "The girl was jealous, that was all. (Deborah) was a pretty girl."
Arraigned on Wednesday on charges of first-degree murder and conspiracy to commit murder were Dutch Martin Wilkens, 21, and William David Ricks, 24, both of Evanston. According to an affidavit filed with the charges, Wilkens and Ricks drove Deborah Lindsay about 20 miles northwest of Evanston to the Woodruff Narrows Reservoir, where they allegedly killed her.
The two men, Deborah Lindsay and the 17-year-old were acquaintances from South Summit High School in Kamas.
Wilkens and Ricks are scheduled for a preliminary hearing Monday in Uinta County. They are each being held on $100,000 cash bail.