Detectives working last weekend's triple homicide believe the jealous, on-again, off-again boyfriend of the female victim is responsible for the trio of killings.

During a Monday night press conference, Salt Lake Police said they are looking for Luis Alberto Salinas, 22, in connection with the early Saturday morning shooting deaths of two men and a woman in the parking lot of 7-Eleven, 960 W. North Temple. He is considered armed and dangerous.

Salt Lake Police Capt. Mark Peck said the three victims, Aristeo Torres, 30, Juan Alberto Ruiz, 40, and Lorie Roberta Gurule, 22, left a party about 30 minutes before arriving at the westside convenience store around 3 a.m. They were shot multiple times inside an idling sports-utility vehicle shortly thereafter and pronounced dead when police arrived at the scene three minutes later.

Witnesses said they saw a white car speeding away from the scene. Police now believe Salinas was in that car with two acquaintances. Later, Peck said, the white car traveled to Salinas' vehicle, which was parked some distance from the murder scene. Salinas' whereabouts remain unknown, although police don't believe his acquaintances were directly involved in the shootings.

"We believe (Salinas) was a jealous type. There are indications of that in the past," Peck said.

Authorities believe Salinas and Gurule were in an "on-again, off-again, boyfriend-girlfriend relationship" dating back to at least 2002, when records show a criminal complaint was filed against him in a domestic disturbance in West Valley City. Gurule was apparently the victim in that case, but further details were unavailable, Peck said.

"We have no doubt he's been actively searching for her (Gurule). How he ran into her (Saturday), we don't know," Peck said, noting the two were not living together at the time of the shooting.

Gurule had "minor scrapes" with the law, Peck said, including DUI and other infractions. Torres and Ruiz either had minor criminal trouble or none at all, he said.

Police don't know whether Gurule was romantically involved with anyone else. It is also unknown if Salinas knew Torres or Ruiz, Peck said.

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Detectives have been working round-the-clock trying to solve the case, although they didn't have much information until some witnesses came forward Monday morning and implicated Salinas, Peck said. "No doubt there's some fear involved in this," which may be why the witnesses took three days to come forward, he said.

Besides the West Valley domestic disturbance complaint against Salinas, which police don't think resulted in an arrest, authorities haven't turned up any criminal history on the man, Peck said.

Salinas is described as Hispanic, 5 feet 6 inches, 120 pounds, black eyes and short black hair. He possibly is driving a blue Chevrolet Camaro with a Utah license plate 476LXP.


E-MAIL: lhancock@desnews.com

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