SALT LAKE CITY — A disagreement over $6 may have led to the killing of a Salt Lake man 10 years ago.
On Thursday, police arrested David McNeill and booked him into the Salt Lake County Jail for investigation of murder in the death of Chesney Hansen, 26, in January 2000.
Hansen was found unconscious outside the Homestead Suites, 1220 E. 2100 South, and later died from his injuries.
Detectives say McNeill and Hansen were in a room on the third floor of the Sugar House hotel when McNeill discovered Hansen allegedly took $6 from him. McNeill later told police "he went into rage and started beating (the victim)," according to jail documents.
The severe beating lasted between two and eight minutes, the documents state. At one point, McNeill "strangled (the victim) with a belt until his eyes started to flutter and rolled back into his skull."
Shortly after the incident in 2000, police received an anonymous 911 call from a person at a pay phone five blocks from the hotel at a convenience store. The caller stated he believed someone in the room next to him was being killed. Investigators now believe McNeill was the person who made that call and fled to West Wendover, Nev., after hanging up the phone, jail documents state.
McNeill was always a person of interest in the case, said Salt Lake Police Sgt. Robin Snyder. A pair of his shoes were found in Hansen's hotel room. But witnesses had been reluctant to step forward in the past for fear of retribution from McNeill.
Recently, however, two people contacted detectives and claimed McNeill told them he beat Hansen and then threw him off the balcony.
Salt Lake homicide investigators reinterviewed McNeill in January. On Thursday, investigators felt they had enough evidence to secure a warrant for his arrest in connection with the killing.
After the story appeared on Fox 13's "Utah's Most Wanted" on Thursday afternoon, police received an anonymous tip that McNeill was in Taylorsville. Officers went to the address they were given and took McNeill into custody, Snyder said.
Court records show McNeill has had a lengthy criminal history in Utah, even after Hansen's death, mainly for drug- and theft-related charges.
Hansen's family remembers Chesney Hansen as a "really nice, sweet person," said stepsister Angie Hansen.
They were grateful to both Salt Lake police for their work and the community for providing detectives with valuable information.
"I am so emotionally distraught, it's been like a roller coaster ride for me," Chesney Hansen's mother, Julie Hansen, said Friday. "I can hardly talk. I am very grateful to Salt Lake police."
"I was really surprised it opened back up after 10 years," added his father, Kenneth Hansen.
But he said he wasn't surprised with who was arrested.
"I suspected him the first time they questioned him the first time 10 years ago," Kenneth Hansen said. "I just had a gut feeling it was him. I'd like to see justice done, and I hope it does get done."
e-mail: preavy@desnews.com