Woods Cross police are re-opening a homicide case that has sat cold for nearly 27 years.
Police and the family of Karin Strom will hold a news conference today, hoping to generate new leads in the unsolved slaying.
Strom, 25, was strangled to death inside her home on June 5, 1980.
Deseret News articles from the time of the slaying say her husband, Stephen, found her body after he left his night job as a machinist in West Valley City when she didn't return his calls and he became worried.
Two months later, Stephen Strom was considered the prime suspect in her murder.
In August 1980, police filed an arrest warrant for Strom. He was apprehended at a friend's North Salt Lake apartment a day later, after more than 40 police officers surrounded the home. He was charged in Farmington's 2nd District Court with criminal homicide, a second-degree felony.
Strom pleaded not guilty to the charge and his attorneys fought to have statements he made to police tossed out. They also fought to exclude some hearsay comments attributed to Karin Strom.
The case took an unusual twist in 1981 when, according to a Deseret News account, prosecutors and police had some of their witnesses undergo hypnosis to strengthen their testimony.
A judge still tossed out the evidence and the case against Stephen Strom was dismissed. In February 1981, Strom told the Deseret News he was unhappy with the work of the Woods Cross Police Department and vowed to continue looking for her killer on his own.
Then-police chief Niles Stahle indicated that Strom remained under suspicion.
"As far as Mr. Strom goes, if he wants to find the guy, more power to him," the chief said at the time. "We know who did it. There's not a heck of a lot I can say on this, to be honest."
Woods Cross police said there are several suspects in mind right now, but declined to comment Monday about the slaying, reserving their comments for later today.
When asked if Stephen Strom was among them, police again declined comment.
E-mail: bwinslow@desnews.com