Natalie Graves and her aunt Linda Dewey stepped into the crisp county air for a stroll among the spectacular red rocks of southern Utah.
Once close family, Dewey, 65, hadn’t seen her niece for months since Graves, 34, moved across the country, and they were eager to catch up.
They left their husbands to make their own fun and drove Dewey’s white Subaru to the Cockscomb Trail on Wednesday, making the most of the sunny afternoon.
But moments after they stepped out of the car, they were gunned down without warning, with cops identifying the deranged killer as Ivan Miller, 22.
Miller later confessed to shooting them both dead, then stabbing Dewey in the heart when she kept moving and making off in her car, prosecutors said.
Hours later, their husbands got worried – this was supposed to be a leisurely stroll, not an all-day hike. They drove to the trailhead to look for them.
About 4.25pm they made the horrifying discovery of both bodies, sparking a 10-hour, 300-mile manhunt across four states until Miller was captured.
While police and the FBI followed his trail, local cops found the body of Margaret Oldroyd, 86, whom Miller allegedly shot in the back of the head in her home.
The tragic chain of events that put three random women in a killer’s crosshairs began three weeks earlier and a thousand miles away in Blakesburg, Iowa.
Natalie Graves, 34, was shot dead at the Cockscomb Trail car park near Torrey, Utah, during a visit to her aunt and uncle
Linda Dewey, 65, was gunned down alongside her niece on Wednesday as she got out of her car
Miller allegedly shot local grandmother Margaret Oldroyd, 86, in the back of the head in her home and stole her car
Miller, who had a history of mental illness, set out on a long road trip out west in his Chevy Silverado about three weeks ago on a cross-country journey.
The young man kept in touch with his brother as he drove, until he hit an elk on Highway 24 near Loa, Utah, about 200 miles south of Salt Lake City, late last Saturday.
Gary Brian, the owner of Brian Auto Parts, said got the call about 10.30pm and picked up Miller and what was left of the Silverado.
The pickup truck was so wrecked that Miller sold it to Brian and was dropped off at the nearby Snuggle Inn about midnight.
‘He didn’t act like someone that would do that. He just acted like a normal person that I towed,’ Brian told KUTV.
Four days later, Miller had made it to the small town of Lyman, the next settlement southeast along Highway 24, and was sick of not having a car.
He told police he spent the night in Oldroyd’s shed, then sneaked inside the house that morning when she was out.
‘Miller advised that he saw a Buick Lesabre at that location and watched the old lady drive away,’ charging documents alleged.
‘Miller then entered her home, waited for her behind a door, and shot her in the back of the head with the 1911 (pistol) while she was sitting down watching television.’
Ivan Miller, 22, was charged with three counts of aggravated murder for allegedly killing three women in rural Utah after he was stranded
Miller’s journey abruptly ended when his Chevy Silverado hit an elk on Highway 24 near Loa late on Saturday. The pickup truck was so wrecked that Miller sold it to the tow truck frim
Oldroyd was a beloved local grandmother who was married to the mayor’s cousin
He allegedly ‘cleaned up the scene the best he could’ and dragged Oldroyd’s body into the she’d basement to hide it.
Miller allegedly took off in the dead woman’s Buick but after only 16 miles decided he ‘did not like the car and wanted to find a different vehicle’.
Dewey moved to Torrey with her husband Alan Dewey about six years ago from Colorado, intending for it to just be a second home.
But they liked the picturesque landscape and friendly small town community so much, they never left.
Dewey ended up on the board of the Entrada Institute, a charity that invests in environmental, cultural, and educational projects across the region.
Her husband Alan volunteered at Capitol Reef National Park every summer as it swelled with tourists exploring the rugged red rocks the area is famous for.
But on Wednesday the town was quiet, and her niece was visiting all the way from Boston and needed to see the sights.
Graves grew up in Utah, studying dance at the University of Utah before switching to business and healthcare administration when that didn’t work out.
Oldroyd with family including two newlyweds on their honeymoom
The scenery in the area of southern Utah that Dewey was showing her niece when they were killed
Dewey moved to Torrey with her husband Alan Dewey about six years ago from Colorado, intending for it to just be a second home – but they ended up staying
She married Taylor Graves, 34, and together they moved to Boston in 2018, where she is a project manager for medical device clinical trials.
Neither woman saw their killer coming.
‘Miller said that he went up to them and shot the younger one in what he thought was the chest and she went down,’ prosecutors alleged in charging documents.
‘Miller then shot the other one twice in the body but saw that she was still moving. Miller then stabbed her multiple times in the heart.’
He told police he dragged both bodies to a dried-up creek bed and ‘laid them next to one another’ out of sight from the car park.
Not only did Miller allegedly hide the bodies, but he also looted them for money and valuables.
‘Miller said that he took their credit cards and used the older woman’s card to buy gas. Miller said that his intent was to get back to Iowa,’ prosecutors alleged.
Miller set off south east in the Subaru, free and clear until Taylor and Alan stumbled upon the bodies.
A park ranger who responded to the scene found three spent .45 caliber shell casings and a spent 20-gauge shotgun shell nearby the bodies.
He also saw drops of blood on the road leading to where the bodies were found.
Graves grew up in Utah, studying dance at the University of Utah before switching to business and healthcare administration when that didn’t work out
Graves married Taylor Graves, 34, and together they moved to Boston in 2018, where she was a project manager for medical device clinical trials
The two women were gunned down at the head of the Cockscomb Trail moments after they got out of the car. Miller allegedly dragged their bodies into a dry creek bed
Police soon found Oldroyd’s Buick hidden under a tree with a live 20-gauge shotgun shell was found near it.
The stolen car led them to Oldroyd’s home, where they found blood in the ‘front room and drag marks leading out of the home’.
Miller allegedly used a wheelbarrow to move her body to the shed, then dragged it into the basement, detectives concluded.
From then on, Miller was a wanted man – and police knew exactly where he was.
The key fob on Dewey’s car had a tracking device that allowed first her family and then police to follow him in real time.
Miller allegedly headed into northern Arizona first, and by 9.13pm on Wednesday he was in Farmington, New Mexico, then turned north through Durango, Colorado.
Miller’s brother told the New York Times that he tried to call him several times on Wednesday and finally reached him by text that night.
The brother said he asked Miller if he needed to be picked up, but Miller told him he was already on his way back to Iowa.
The elderly victim’s Lyman home has been cordoned off by police, who are still gathering evidence about Miller’s alleged murder spree
Miller and his brother both grew up in an Amish village, but left after they became adults. Their parents still live in the Amish community.
Miller’s Facebook profile loudly declares he is ‘not Amish’ but is otherwise blank.
Finally, the stolen car stopped in Pagosa Springs, Colorado, and police from multiple agencies made their move.
The Subaru was found abandoned at a Phillips 66 gas station, with Miller standing nearby wearing a red jacket and khaki pants.
Miller fled, but was soon cornered and surrendered to police without incident at 2.41am Thursday.
Police found he was carrying a concealed pistol they alleged was used to kill his three victims, but somehow missed the hidden knife until he was interviewed a second time by the FBI.
‘When asked what he had done with the knife he had used. Miller produced the knife during the interview,’ prosecutors wrote.
When asked under interrogation why he did it, Miller allegedly ‘confessed that it “had to be done” but he did not like to do it’.
Police investigate the murders at the trailhead in the majestic Capitol Reef National Park
Capitol Reef National Park swells every summer with tourists exploring the rugged red rocks the area is famous for
Miller was charged with three counts of aggravated murder, first-degree felonies that could send him to death row if convicted. He is yet to enter a plea.
He is being held at the Archuleta County Jail in Pagosa Springs awaiting extradition to Utah, and faced court on Thursday represented by a public defender.
Miller was already scheduled to appear in an Iowa courtroom that same day on charges of theft, burglary, marijuana possession, and being ineligible to carry a gun.
That case stemmed from an incident in December when he was found inside a cabin at Lake Wapello State Park in Davis County, Iowa, with a fully loaded bolt–action rifle and a fully loaded Diamondback AR–10 .308.
Miller told the park ranger who discovered him that he had picked the cabin’s lock a few days earlier to be somewhere warm.
Graves and Dewey’s family said it was ‘dealing with the shock of the devastating loss of two members of our family’.
‘[They] were bonding over the beauty of a hike in one of their favorite places on earth – cherished by them and the community, considered to be a safe sanctuary,’ it said.
‘They were murdered. We cannot comprehend why this happened.’
Locals remembered the women allegedly murdered by Miller by tying pink ribbons to a fence on Thursday
Linda ‘was loved deeply and loved her family deeply. She was the heart of our family’ and her niece ‘joy, sunshine and beauty embodied’.
Back in Wayne County, Utah, small towns where everyone knew the victims are in mourning – including Lyman Mayor Burke Torgerson, whose first cousin was married to Oldroyd.
‘This has been a real gut punch for us. We’re not used to this kind of thing,’ he told KSL.
‘Natural death is one thing, but to be taken this way is awful. That’s another extra hit and we’ve been friends forever and known each other forever. She’s watched me grow up.
‘What would make a young man do something like that, just randomly? It’s just the hardest thing for me to understand.’
