Dive teams from the FBI and the Saratoga Springs Police Department will search the Jordan River on Monday, looking for evidence in the March shooting deaths of a 44-year-old mother and her 8-year-old son.
After months of no updates, Saratoga Springs announced Monday that the police department, in conjunction with the FBI, “will conduct a search of the Jordan River and the surrounding area” around Jessica Orton Lyman’s townhome, 1244 N. Willowbrook Lane, where the mother and her young son, Eli Painter, were found with gunshot wounds in Lyman’s bedroom on March 28. Eli was pronounced dead at the scene. Lyman was flown to a local hospital and died a couple of days later.
Police say the search area is one “of multiple locations where law enforcement is conducting efforts to locate additional evidence to further the investigation of the incident.”
No arrests have been made in the killings, and no suspects have been named.
“It has been nearly eight months since an act of senseless violence took the lives of our daughter and sister, Jessica Lyman, and our grandson and nephew, Eli Painter. We never imagined our family would face this kind of tragedy, and it has been very emotionally difficult,” the Orton family said Monday in a prepared statement.
“Since March 28, we have worked closely and consistently with the Saratoga Springs Police Department and other local and national law enforcement agencies in pursuit of justice. We are encouraged by this search of the Jordan River by the dive team for additional evidence, and we remain hopeful it will help bring accountability to those responsible. We miss Jessica and Eli every single day and continue to seek the answers and justice their memories deserve.”
Several search warrants unsealed in 4th District Court earlier this year indicated that police had collected evidence from doorbell cameras and items were seized from inside the house, including the bedroom of Lyman’s 15-year-old son. The teen boy told police he was sleeping when the shootings occurred. Lyman’s 17-year-old daughter, who had just arrived home, called 911 and reported that she found her mother and younger brother “lying in bed, unconscious and bleeding from their heads.”
Details on what the dive teams will be looking for or why they are now focusing on the Jordan River 8 months after the shootings were not immediately available. Police have previously said that no guns have been recovered in the investigation.
“This investigation remains active and ongoing, and anyone with information related to this case is asked to contact the Saratoga Springs Investigations Unit at 801-766-6503. Additional details will not be released at this time to protect the integrity of the investigation,” the city said in a statement.
This story will be updated.