After experiencing a drop during 2022, the number of homicides in Utah last year was up again.
A total of 94 people were killed in Utah as a result of homicide during 2023, according to statistics compiled by KSL.com. That's compared to 80 in 2022, 95 in 2021, 103 in 2020, and 80 in 2019. The 2023 number could go up if several active investigations are later determined to be homicides.
Seventy-two of those 94 victims were killed with guns in Utah last year — that's 77%. Six were beaten to death; five died from stab wounds.
And Utah also saw a spike in fatal police shootings. Police officers shot and killed 19 men during 2023 and one 16-year-old boy. That's compared to 13 total in 2022. In at least 17 of those 20 police shootings, investigators say the person was armed with a weapon. In five of those confrontations, the men fired at officers.
More than one-third of Utah homicide victims in 2023 were killed by a family member, current or former significant other, or roommate. Most of those 32 deaths were from guns.
Fathers are accused of being responsible for the deaths of seven children during 2023; husbands are accused of being responsible for killing eight wives; four boyfriends or ex-boyfriends were tied to homicides; while sons were deemed to be responsible for killing six parents. One mother was accused of killing her child in 2023 and one wife accused of killing her husband.
Homicide is defined as the killing of one person at the hands of another, whether it is done intentionally, recklessly, accidentally or in self-defense. Murder is the legal term used in criminal cases for the unlawful killing of another person. A person who commits a homicide may not necessarily be charged with murder. For example, while fatal police shootings are homicides, most of those shootings are determined by a county attorney to be legally justified and charges are seldom filed.
Cases charged as manslaughter are included in KSL.com's yearly statistics, which according to Utah law, means a person "recklessly" caused the death of another. However, cases that were charged as automobile homicide or negligence resulting in death were not counted to remain consistent with statistics from previous years. Most negligence cases involve fatal crashes between drivers and either pedestrians, bicycles or other vehicles. There were about a dozen such criminal cases in Utah in 2023.
Seven people who died as a result of being hit by a vehicle in 2023, in cases that prosecutors determined were more than negligence, were included in KSL.com's 2023 statistics.
Seven times in 2023, multiple victims died in the same incident. The year got off to an extremely tragic start when seven members of the same family were killed in Enoch, Iron County. Tausha Haight, 40, her five children ages 4-17, and Haight's mother were all killed in their home by Haight's husband, who then took his own life.
In May, Anastasia Stevens, her stepmother Becky Stevens and her father Donald Stevens were all shot to death inside Anastasia Stevens' Layton home. Her husband, Jeremy Bailey, was convicted of three counts of aggravated murder and sentenced to three consecutive life sentences.
Seventeen of Utah's homicide victims in 2023 were under age 18, with seven of those victims under the age of 8. The youngest victim was a 1-month-old boy who has only been identified by the initials D.O., who died after allegedly not receiving the supplemental oxygen he needed to survive since birth. Police say his body was then disposed of somewhere in Parleys Canyon. The boy's mother is charged with aggravated murder.
The oldest homicide victim was Dora Powell Webb. The 83-year-old woman was beaten to death in her Lehi home by her 85-year-old husband who said his frustration had been building until "he just lost it." Ronald Morgan told detectives that "he was exhausted because what he had done wasn't as easy as shooting her." A day after he was arrested, he was taken to a hospital and died.
Eleven of the 94 homicides occurred during the month of December, including nine people killed during the final 10 days of 2023.
Here is a look at each of the faces and stories of Utah's 2023 homicide victims.