Daniel Ray Troyer

 VICTIMS: 2+2 = 4

I'm sure that everyone with an interest in serial killers will be fascinated by this case. You see police could never actually get anything to stick to Mr. Troyer, so they've had him locked up on a 1985 burglary conviction. But unluckily for them the sentence is only 15 years, so Daniel should have been up for release very soon. But the State didn't like that idea much, and they have been able to find a way to link Troyer to the crimes he allegedly committed in the early 80's. And what were those crimes?

Daniel Troyer is suspected of killing four old ladies. The two police have really focused on are Drucilla Ovard, 83, who was murdered in 1985; Ethel Luckau, 88, who was murdered in 1988.

Both victims were elderly and lived alone. There were no obvious signs of break-in, robbery was not a motive and both women were killed in a similar manner: Ovard was strangled, and Luckau was strangled and suffocated.

But the most striking similarity was that the perpetrator left semen on towels at both murder scenes.

Interestingly Troyer was paroled from prison about a month before Ovard was killed. Luckau was murdered while Troyer was staying at a Salt Lake halfway house.

In the Ovard killing, Troyer has been charged with first-degree felony murder and aggravated burglary, punishable by up to life in prison. In the Luckau case, he is charged with capital murder, punishable by execution. No trial date has been set in that case.

The 39-year-old defendant is also suspected of murdering two other elderly Salt Lake area women, but prosecutors say there is insufficient evidence to bring charges. Thelma Lillian Blodgett, 69, of South Salt Lake, died July 11, 1985 -- six days before Ovard was killed. Lucille Westerman, 73, a neighbour of Luckau, died Aug. 23, 1988 -- six days after Luckau was killed.

Also hampering his innocence claim is the fact that he was previously in jail for an attack on an elderly woman that occurred in 1978, when he beat, choked and attempted to rape a 71-year-old quadriplegic woman, who survived. Troyer pleaded guilty and went to prison. Ten years later, he won parole, which was revoked following the Ovard murder and his arrest for the Nelson burglary.

Are you starting to put all the pieces together?

Well, here's some information about the first murder and Troyer's movements at the time to help you.

Ovard was beaten and strangled July 17, 1985, in the bathroom of her home at 1457 E. Logan Ave. (1420 South). She was not sexually assaulted, but the killer unclothed and exposed her body and apparently masturbated, according to testimony at a 1997 preliminary hearing. Semen found on a yellow towel allegedly has been matched to Troyer's.

Two weeks after the murder, Troyer was arrested less than two blocks away for breaking into the home of 70-year-old Carol Nelson. Nelson was not there, but a neighbor called police.

At the time, Troyer was on parole for attacking an elderly woman in 1978. And his hand was broken -- an injury police say they believe he suffered while punching and breaking Ovard's ribs. But Troyer denied killing Ovard and there was little other evidence. He pleaded guilty to the Nelson burglary and was sent to prison for 1 to 15 years -- the prison term which is about to expire.

Troyer spent three years in prison for the Nelson burglary before he was paroled to a halfway house. About two weeks later, on Aug. 17, 1988, Luckau was murdered at her home, 357 E. 1700 South. The day she died, Troyer had left the halfway house to apply for work at a barber college, three doors away from Luckau's home. Her nude body was found in her bed.

Troyer was charged in 1988 with Luckau's murder, but the charges were dismissed two years later when a judge suppressed crucial evidence, including a statement from Troyer's sister that he had asked her for an alibi; statements from two prison inmates, who claimed Troyer admitted the murder to them, and DNA testing of Troyer's hair.

It was 12 years later, in 1997, that DNA technology -- then brand new -- became sophisticated enough to link Troyer to Ovard's murder and allow charges to be filed. The defense will challenge the admissibility of the DNA evidence during a four-day hearing set to begin June 1.

Troyer allegedly told a fellow inmate elderly women were "easy prey," according to testimony from a December 1997 preliminary hearing in the Ovard case.

Prosecutors appealed the evidence suppression to the Utah Supreme Court, which in 1997 ruled it could be used against Troyer. Since then, prosecutors have submitted new samples for DNA testing and claim they have positively matched Troyer's semen to the Luckau murder scene.
 

MY OPINION

it looks pretty bleak for Daniel Troyer. Police don't like to be beaten by murderers, usually they'll go as far as it takes to win, and in this case it seems they have. How shattered must Troyer have been when he heard they were going to re-try him. man, can you imagine getting that close to freedom, then being told you're going to die in prison (which is what will happen). As for the murders, well I don't like old people. They smell, their rude, their slow, and they think just because they've lived for eighty years it gives them the right to push in front of you at supermarkets, banks, bakeries etc. Well I have no problem with them being killed, it's just that these sick fuckers (Glover, Erskine etc.) go and feel them up or, even worse, fuck them. That shit is just too sick for me.