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Show Area police officers cred it ed with a decade of fine feats By JAMS STUART While police departments throughout Davis County work dai-ly dai-ly with assault cases, vehicle theft and burglary, there are a few cases that stand out in the minds of the police, officers. Some of the memorable cases investigated by local police departments during the past decade follow. WEST BOUNTipjL , May of 1981 brought charges of homicide against two transients. Apparently three transients began to argue while riding a train through the city. Angered, two of them threw the third man out of the train, where he fell to his death. Tracy Collins Bank (now West 1) was robbed in August of 82. The president of the bank was taken hostage by two men. The two suspects were not immediately apprehended ap-prehended after that robbery, but were arrested after another bank robbery. WOODS CROSS A homicide in the mid '80s led to the arrest of a 'husband for the strangulation death of his wife. However, charges 'were later dropped against the husband for lack of evidence. No one else has been arrested for that murder. Teresa Greves, 24, disappeared in August, 1983. No connection has been found between this case and the convicted Ted Bundy. The files are still open on this one. CENTERVHJLE An incident culminated in November 1989, when three juv eniles were arrested and turned over to juvenile court They were accused accus-ed of taking five new cars from De Wall's Towing to West Valley City. Once there, they apparently played demolition derby with the vehicles and completely destroyed them. Burglaries at storage sheds had been a problem until an alert officer put a stop to two alleged thieves. One man had been arrested and officers had a description of the second se-cond man. The officer, on his way to getting oxygen tanks filled, recognized rec-ognized the fugitive walking along the street and arrested him. The suspect was charged with burglary. Another problem that plagued the city for a time was the bashing of mail boxes. Over SO boxes had apparently ap-parently been destroyed with a baseball bat. Officers conducted a thorough investigation and five juvenile juv-enile boys were apprehended and referred to juvenile court. FARMTNGTON In 1983 Farmington residents, as did as all Davis County residents, suffered through the floods. For a while it seemed as though the mountains were going to wash into the valley. For more information on the flood situation, see related story this section. Tragedy struck the small town when two youngsters were killed in. separate accidents at the Lagoon" Amusement Park. Thirteen-year-old Kilee King was killed June 1989, in a fall from the roller coaster. Ryan Beckstead, age 6, died after being struck by "Puff, the Little Fire Dragon' a child's ride at the park.' Both cases are still under investigation. BOUNTIFUL The Bountiful Police Department handled various calls and situations during the decade. A momentous, event took place this week, however, when Officer Brian Taylor saved the lives of three boys when he rescued them from a smoke-filled home. Details on this story are also in today's Clipper. NORTH SALT LAKE On April 14, 1987 Lee Hodson, a 30-year-old plant manager at Hod-son Hod-son Chemical, died, and scores of workers from surrounding businesses busi-nesses were evacuatedThe accident occurred when the toxic chemical Trichloroethane III leaked from the tank Mr. Hodson was near, filling the surrounding area with deadly fumes. Shortly after the chemical spill, Chevron Oil Refinery had a pipeline break, causing a shut-off from North Salt Lake to Sunset. The oil drained into the industrial park in North Salt Lake and the park had to be evacuated. Many people from the health department, the city police and fire department as well as others helped during the clean-up. DAVIS COUNTY SHERIFF'S OFFICE In July of 1988, Donald Allen was arrested for shooting his wife in the head. He had kept his wife, Gwen, home for a week after the shooting and dressed her wounds. Donald's mother also help attend to the wounds. Children were living in the home at the time. The wound continued to get worse and Gwen was finally taken to Davis North medical facility. Donald was ar- i rested, convicted and sentenced to prison. In September of 1987, the Davis County Jail became the first county jail in Utah to be smoke free. A homicide-suicide took place at the Cross Roads Lounge around the end of 1983. A man had just been fired as a Farmington City employee. He was recently divorced divorc-ed and very depressed. He had been drinking during the day at the lounge. He went to his home and got a shotgun and then returned to the lounge. Some teen-age boys were at the lounge waiting for a friend who was a kitchen employee when the man shot one of them in the head. The man then went into the back ally and shot himself in the head. In December of 1987, a woman named Teresa was taken from Salt Lake to Davis County and had been stabbed from 47-48 times. She was then dumped in a field. She managed manag-ed to crawl to a house and ring the doorbell. Since it was 2 a.m. in the morning, the resident did not let the woman in but called the police. That action is credited with saving her life because the cold had shutdown shut-down her system and kept her from bleeding to death. Once the ambulance am-bulance arrived and she began to warm up, she started to bleed profusely. pro-fusely. One white , female and two black females were arrested and convicted of the crime apparently involving lesbians and jealousy. The finding of the body of little Rachel Runyan was a tragic incident. inci-dent. Investigation continues as the case.remain unsolved. |