17-year-old’s clothing helps identify suspect in her 1965 killing, Utah police say
More than half a century ago, 17-year-old Tanya Weber attended a wedding reception with friends in Utah.
Afterward, the four friends went out for pizza, according to a June 27, 1965, newspaper clipping from The Ogden Examiner.
Tanya’s friends dropped her off at her Logan home at about 11:45 p.m. that Friday evening, the newspaper reported.
The next day, June 26, 1965, a wedding bouquet was found on the porch of Tanya’s home, and her body was found “shoved behind bushes” in the backyard of a residence a block away, according to the newspaper.
Tanya’s cause of death was strangulation, and her death was ruled a homicide, the Logan City Police Department said in a news release shared to Facebook.
Despite investigation and identifying a potential suspect from the outset, Tanya’s case remained unsolved for decades, according to police.
Now, on the 59th anniversary of her death, police have announced they’ve closed her case.
By testing DNA from Tanya’s clothing, police said they’ve identified Owen Hodges Kimball, who died by suicide in 1965, as the teen’s accused killer.
Investigation
At the time of her death, police said they and other agencies “interviewed about 1,000 people and collected statements from 150 of those interviewed.”
When officers “processed the crime scene,” they collected Tanya’s clothing as evidence, police said.
Several days of investigation led officials to identify Kimball, who was 26 in 1965, as a suspect in Tanya’s killing, police said.
Kimball, who lived close to Tanya, “knew of her,” police said.
Additionally, police said “statements from those interviewed put Kimball in the area around the time of Tanya’s death.”
Four days after Tanya’s death, “Kimball’s family reported him missing,” according to police.
He disappeared after telling his wife he was headed to get bait for an upcoming fishing trip with his sons, The Herald Journal reported in a 2015 editorial.
He was found dead inside his car a few days later, police said.
On July 10, 1965, Cache County Attorney B.H. Harris issued a public statement, saying “there has been no evidence submitted to this office directly indicating there are any prime suspects subject to this prosecution,” according to police.
A month before Tanya’s death, “a new Utah law eliminated the use of coroner’s juries to determine fault in homicides of this type,” or “homicides involving a deceased suspect who could not be put on trial,” according to The Herald Journal.
The case would go unsolved for nearly six decades more.
Case reopened
Then, in early 2022, police reopened the case.
Police sent case evidence, primarily Tanya’s clothing, “to the Utah State Crime Lab for DNA analysis.”
Through testing, police said the results showed “a mixture of several males’ DNA on her clothing.”
To pinpoint a suspect, police said they needed a DNA sample from the suspect, and, as such, requested to have Kimball’s body exhumed.
After getting the ex parte order, police said Kimball’s body was exhumed last November and sent to Utah Medical Examiner’s Office for testing, which found a DNA profile from Kimball on an article of Tanya’s clothing.
Using the new evidence, police said it presented the case to the county’s district attorney’s office.
Prosecutors reviewed the case, which included the new evidence, statements and other evidence in the 1965 case, and concluded “Mr. Kimball did in fact kill Ms. Tanya Weber and this evidence would be sufficient to obtain a verdict beyond a reasonable doubt,” according to police.
Police said investigators have spoken with “Tanya’s family throughout this process and hopes this information provides them closure.”
Logan is about an 80-mile drive north from Salt Lake City.
This story was originally published June 26, 2024 at 4:37 PM with the headline "17-year-old’s clothing helps identify suspect in her 1965 killing, Utah police say."
