PAYSON — Six months after retired BYU professor Kay Mortensen's throat was slashed in his Payson Canyon home, investigators are still pursuing several leads, including four people who were arrested in the days following the killing.
Three of the four have prior federal convictions involving drugs and guns, leading authorities to suspect that the slaying may have been related to the sale or trade of weapons from the large cache that Mortensen, 70, kept at his home. In March, officials released a list of 32 missing firearms.
That is only one avenue investigators are exploring, according to Utah County Sheriff's Lt. Mike Brower.
"We're still aggressively investigating this case for resolution," Brower said. "It's not a cold case."
The only persons of interest authorities have named are Mortensen's son and daughter-in-law, Roger and Pamela Mortensen of Payson. The couple reported finding Kay Mortensen in an upstairs bathtub after masked men had tied them up, but investigators said their story contained inconsistencies.
Meanwhile, authorities interviewed a witness who placed at least three other people in the home on the night of the killing, according to people with knowledge of the investigation. However, the witness reportedly was so intoxicated on some kind of drug that he or she could not be sure about what happened that night.
Acting on the witness' tip and other information, members of the Joint Criminal Apprehension Team sought at least four people and questioned them about Mortensen's death.
On Nov. 19, three days after the slaying, members of JCAT boxed in a Payson couple and another woman in a vehicle near 700 West and 7000 South in West Jordan, officials said.
The Payson man, 27, and his 26-year-old girlfriend were booked into Utah County Jail and interviewed. He was held for violating his probation from a 2004 federal conviction for being a felon in possession of a firearm.
In a statement made when he pleaded guilty in that case, the man said he exchanged two guns, believed to be stolen, for methamphetamine. He is serving 10 months in federal prison in Colorado for probation violations, including failing to submit to drug testing, and is set to be released in July.
His girlfriend was released the day after the arrest and is facing unrelated forgery and theft charges out of Spanish Fork for allegedly stealing checks from her mother.
Officials fear that naming the couple or the other two men questioned about Mortensen's Nov. 16 death could jeopardize the murder investigation.
Also on Nov. 19, JCAT arrested a 29-year-old man at gunpoint outside his West Jordan home. He was booked into the Utah County Jail and later sent to federal prison for violating his probation in connection with a conviction for drug possession and possession of a firearm as a felon.
In a statement supporting his 2004 guilty plea, the man admitted possessing a stolen handgun and a gram of meth while at a South Jordan restaurant. In December, he admitted using meth the day after the killing. He was released from prison in March.
On Nov. 24, another West Jordan man, 40, was arrested by JCAT and booked into the Utah County Jail. In 2006, he was indicted for possession of firearms and ammunition by a felon and possession of heroin, cocaine and marijuana with intent to distribute. He pleaded guilty to the weapons charge in federal court in 2007.
After a judge found in December that he had violated his probation by failing to submit to drug testing, he was given supervised release. But the man was sentenced this week to 10 months in prison for another violation.
He was already facing a lewdness charge in Holladay Justice Court after police said that on Nov. 6 he followed a mother and daughter in his car in Cottonwood Heights and exposed himself. Police found a large knife in his pocket when they arrested him.
Mistakenly believing he was due in court in Holladay on the day of the Mortensen homicide, he called to say he was "running late," according to court records.
Both West Jordan men have a record of dealing in drugs even while in custody.
The 29-year-old man pleaded guilty in 2005 to attempted drug distribution after a woman visiting him at the Weber County jail drilled a hole in a window and passed him a straw containing crystal meth.
And the 40-year-old man was charged with manslaughter after giving a fellow Utah State Prison inmate a fatal injection of heroin in 1999. He pleaded guilty to negligent homicide.
Since the Payson homicide, many acquaintances of Kay Mortensen have described him as a quasi-survivalist and expressed doubts that a stranger could catch him by surprise. One friend said Mortensen was so cautious that he would wear a clip-on tie so that it would come off in the hand of anyone who tried to grab him by it.
His son, Roger Mortensen, has a history of making violent threats against family members and others. In 1996, according to court records and police reports, he pointed a gun at a car full of Boy Scouts during a confrontation in American Fork Canyon. He pleaded guilty to exhibiting a dangerous weapon.
Roger Mortensen also has convictions for theft and violating a protective order regarding his ex-wife.
Roger and Pamela Mortensen have retained defense attorney Greg Skordas. Although officials at one point contemplated charging her with obstruction of justice, no charges have been filed.
"I'm just disappointed that it's taking so long to bring charges against anyone," Darla Mortensen, Kay Mortensen's widow, told the Deseret News. "But I'm confident we will get answers eventually. I know the detectives are working hard and giving their full attention to it."
The Mortensen family is offering a $25,000 reward for information leading to an arrest and conviction.
Meanwhile, a for sale sign recently went up at the end of the driveway that snakes up through trees and brush to the Payson Canyon home. Neighbors, like the family, are eager for some kind of resolution.
"It really makes my hair stand on end when I see the son up there collecting things," said one neighbor, referring to Roger Mortensen. "The thing that scares me is that when someone does something that brutal, they're capable of doing it again."
e-mail: pkoepp@desnews.com