Twenty-one years ago the partially clad body of Tiffany Hambleton was found brutally stabbed in a ditch on Salt Lake City's west side.
The case went cold until 2003 when renewed police investigations and more modern DNA testing unearthed new evidence, which prosecutors say points to Dan L. Petersen, 44. On Monday, Petersen went on trial in 3rd District Court in Salt Lake City on a first-degree felony murder charge.
A three-woman, seven-man jury listened intently as attorneys for both sides outlined the last known days of the 14-year-old girl's life, including her attendance at a Feb. 17, 1986, KISS concert with friends, being asked by some adult men to attend a party and ending up drinking beer at Petersen's home, along with several other people.
Testimony from two witnesses showed Hambleton did not want to go home from the party with friends. Instead, they said she seemed to want to stay longer with Petersen, and Petersen has told others he tried to give her a ride home in his 1957 truck, but it ran out of gas at 3900 South and Main Street. He said she didn't want to sleep in the truck until morning, and the last time he saw her she was walking north on Main Street.
Prosecutor Patricia Parkinson told jurors Hambleton, whose badly decomposed body was found March 31 of that year, had been stabbed 15 times on the neck and torso and had four wounds on her hands that looked like she had tried to defend herself. The girl was found wearing only a shirt, socks and bra, suggesting sexual assault.
The clothing was sealed for years but recently was sent to a lab for more modern testing, Parkinson said. The DNA from semen on the clothes could belong only to Petersen, she said.
"He said he left Tiffany alive," Parkinson said, referring to the three times Petersen has been interviewed by police. "He also said he never had sexual relations with her."
By the end of the trial, "You will be able to find that man — Dan Petersen — guilty of murdering Tiffany Hambleton," Parkinson said.
Defense attorney Shawn Robinson, however, urged jurors to remember the state has to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Petersen did this. Robinson contended there is plenty of evidence to show his client is not guilty of murder.
Khristy Cummings, who formerly lived with Petersen's brother in a home also shared by Dan Petersen, testified at an earlier preliminary hearing and again on Monday that she saw Petersen returning the next day about 8 a.m. with no blood or scratches on him, Robinson said. Two people helped Petersen retrieve his car, which had run out of gas and needed to have its carburetor primed to get it started, Robinson said.
Robinson also said another witness reported that he saw the girl alive and spoke to her the next evening, while she was with a different man.
Robinson said there also were fibers on the girl's socks that were similar to those from another suspect's vehicle, an individual who was previously described as coming home covered with blood on the night in question.
Vicki English, the girl's mother, testified Monday she had not wanted her daughter to go to the concert because it was on a school night. She said she occasionally had to ground her daughter for violating her curfew. But in general, she said, they enjoyed a close relationship that included swimming, talking, shopping and walking places together since English did not own a car at the time.
English testified she fell asleep on the couch while waiting up for her daughter to get home, and when English woke and the girl was not there, "I thought something was wrong."
Petersen, who was extradited from Arizona, where he worked in construction, is being held in the Salt Lake County Jail on $1 million bail.
E-mail: lindat@desnews.com