Police found several items covered with blood in the homes and cars of a slain Sandy man and his business partner who is charged with the murder, according to two search warrants filed Friday in 3rd District Court.
Sandy police detectives searched the pickup truck and Sandy home of Tibor Brown, 2083 Newcastle Drive, on July 10. Brown was found buried in his own back yard July 9 after his brother reported him missing July 7.
On July 10, detectives also searched the home and car of 35-year-old David Wayne Stoedter, the man prosecutors say was responsible for Brown's death. Stoedter was charged Thursday with murder, a first-degree felony. Prosecutors say Brown died of gunshot wounds to the head.
Brown's family members released a brief statement Friday that said, "Tibor was a trusting, generous and loving young man. His energetic and positive character always brought brightness and joy to everyone he encountered. His family and many friends will cherish his memory forever."
Brown, his brother and Stoedter ran Rocky Mountain Recruiting, an employment placement service for pharmaceutical companies, out of Brown's home. According to police, Brown changed the locks on the office door within a week before his mysterious disappearance.
Detectives found bloodstains on an office doorjamb and a love seat and blood spatter on business files from a bedroom and on a window ledge in the office, according to a property report contained in the search warrants.
Investigators also found several stains in Brown's truck bed that tested positive for blood in preliminary field tests, according to the search warrants.
Inside Stoedter's car, police found "numerous blood flakes on carpet inside the trunk," the search warrant states.
They also recovered papers in a garbage can at Stoedter's home that were covered in blood, according to charges filed against Stoedter.
The search warrants laid out a timeline for the night Brown possibly disappeared.
A woman who lives next door to Brown's home told detectives she saw Stoedter around 5 p.m. July 5 burying a large blue tarp in the northwest corner of Brown's yard, according a search warrant affidavit. Stoedter told the woman he was burying his dog.
Stoedter's wife told Sandy detectives her husband came home that same day around 7 p.m., wearing a blue golf shirt, black short pants and white shoes that were covered in sand and dirt, a search warrant affidavit states.
Stoedter's wife said her husband changed out of his dirty clothes in the garage, according to the affidavit.
After searching Stoedter's home, police took into evidence a pair of black jeans from a dresser; a shirt, shorts, towel and golf shirt from a bathroom and a blue shirt from a dryer.
Stoedter made his first court appearance Friday on the murder charges and is scheduled for his second court appearance Thursday.
E-mail: djensen@desnews.com