ELBERTA — Utah County sheriff's deputies took a man into custody Friday night in connection with the death of a worker at a dairy farm owned by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Detectives located the man in Provo after checking several tips, Utah County Sheriff's Sgt. Spencer Cannon said.
Police launched a manhunt for a 26-year-old dairy worker believed to be armed with a 9mm handgun earlier Friday. The search was called after the body of a co-worker was found on the floor in a bunkhouse of WestLake Farms.
The victim had been shot multiple times in the neck, Cannon said.
The bunkhouse housed five men who worked at the farm, located 3.5 miles north of Elberta off U-68 at 13450 W. 12100 South.
Officers were advised to use extreme caution in the search, Cannon said.
After the shooting the man fled in a midsize white van with brown stripes. It was found abandoned later in the day south of Elberta near another LDS Church-owned ranch, Cannon said.
Utah County Sheriff's Office received a 911 call about 12:30 p.m., Cannon said. Eureka ambulance, paramedics and deputies responded to the bunkhouse where they found the dead man, he said.
"One of the other workers (discovered the body)," said Walter Tachiki, who manages the farm.
Dick Allen, the dairy's manager, was in the dairy's office about five miles away and said he didn't hear any gunshots. Tachiki was on the farm a few miles from Elberta and didn't hear anything either, he said.
Tachiki said he didn't know either worker but heard that trouble between them had "been brewing for a while."
Between the two of them, Tachiki and Allen manage about 100 farm and dairy workers, Allen said. Church-owned agriculture property surrounds the tiny unincorporated town of Elberta. Principal crops are silage corn and alfalfa grown as feed for the dairy cattle.
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