GUILTY UT - Krystal Beslanowitch, 17, found murdered on the Provo River, 15 Dec 1995

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http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2013/09/20/cigarette-solves-murder-case/2842269/

MIDWAY, Utah (AP) — A Utah sheriff traveled to Florida and helped arrest a man in an 18-year-old murder case after authorities say they used DNA from a cigarette butt to link him to the crime.

Wasatch County Sheriff Todd Bonner flew to Sarasota County, Fla., and helped take Joseph Michael Simpson, 46, into custody Tuesday.

Simpson, formerly of Clearfield, was being held on suspicion of aggravated murder in the killing of 17-year-old Krystal Lynn Beslanowitch, whose bloodied and broken body was found Dec. 6, 1995, along the Provo River near Midway...........
 
The article linked below includes a photo of the victim on this murder. I see the above link has a photo of the accused.

This was his second murder. Or ???? Wonder IF he has any victims unnamed? After all, he wasn't even a suspect in this case, way back when.

Hope LE is looking into this guy some more!
fran



18 years later, police say a murder mystery is solved

HEBER CITY — Todd Bonner was a sheriff's deputy when he was dispatched in the cold, morning hours of Dec. 15, 1995 to the scene of a dead body on a bank of the Provo River.

The nude body of Krystal Lynn Beslanowitch, 17, was lying face down in the rocks, bloody and broken. For two years Bonner served as the lead investigator of a team that went all over the state in hopes of solving the Salt Lake teen's murder.

But the trail went cold.

"It's a case that's haunted me for almost my whole career," Bonner said Thursday, announcing that nearly two decades later, an arrest had been made. "It's closure for me, as well. I'm very thrilled of the outcome, but it has taken a lot of time, and it has taken a lot of work."

more at link ................... http://www.deseretnews.com/article/...-Wasatch-County-cold-case-killing.html?pg=all
 
http://www.sltrib.com/home/4325646-155/jury-selection-set-to-begin-for

Jury selection is expected to begin Thursday morning in the trial for a 49-year-old man accused of killing a teenage girl more than 20 years ago in Heber.

Joseph Michael Simpson is charged in Wasatch County's 4th District Court with first-degree felony aggravated murder, accused of beating 17-year-old Krystal Lynn Beslanowitch to death on the banks of the Provo River in 1995.

Prosecutors have decided not to seek the death penalty for Simpson, so the maximum penalty he could face if convicted is life in prison without the possibility of parole.
 
Trial in teen's cold case murder hinges on DNA, attorneys say

https://www.ksl.com/?sid=41488242&nid=148&title=trial-in-teens-cold-case-murder-hinges-on-dna-attorneys-say

A murder trial 20 years in the making is underway in Heber City, where a jury will consider whether a DNA link is enough to prove who killed a 17-year-old girl.

Opening arguments in the case of Joseph Michael Simpson, 49, were given Thursday in a trial expected to last through October. Simpson was charged three years ago with the December 1995 cold case murder of Krystal Lynn Beslanowitch, who was found naked with her skull beaten in with a rock on the banks of the Provo River in Midway.

Through 20 years worth of investigation, King told jurors the case will hinge on DNA evidence on Beslanowitch's body and the scene where she was found.

"That shows us Mr. Simpson had sex with Krystal proximate to her death, and he had his hand on the rock used to crush her skull," King said.

Richard Gale, Simpson's attorney, emphasized that in a case where DNA evidence is essential, it is important to remember that the findings revealed more than just a match to Simpson. Another man's DNA was also found on the rocks where she was found, and evidence on her body showed she had sex with two other men before she died.
 
Heber City jury convicts man of murdering teen in 1995

https://www.ksl.com/?sid=41667684&nid=148&title=heber-city-jury-convicts-man-of-murdering-teen-in-1995

A jury has found a man once imprisoned for murder guilty of a cold case killing committed after he was released on parole.

After about four hours of deliberation, jurors found Joseph Michael Simpson, 49, guilty of aggravated murder Thursday in the 1995 death of Krystal Lynn Beslanowitch.

Because Simpson's 1987 conviction of murder in a stabbing could be considered prejudicial to jurors, they were instructed to issue a finding of fact of whether they believed Simpson killed Beslanowitch. After the jury determined that he had killed the teen, they were told of the 1987 murder and that the conviction bumped the current charge against Simpson to aggravated murder.

Jurors then deliberated again briefly before finding Simpson guilty of aggravated murder. They will begin Friday to hear testimony before deciding whether Simpson will be sentenced to 25 years to life in prison or life in prison without parole. At least 10 of the 12 jurors must agree in order for Simpson to receive the life without parole sentence.
 
Utah jury sentences man to life without parole for killing teen in 1995

http://www.sltrib.com/home/4416500-155/utah-jury-deliberating-sentence-for-man

A Florida man who was convicted of brutally beating a teenage girl to death in Utah in 1995 will serve the rest of his life behind bars, a jury decided on Friday.

Before the jury found that he will never be released from prison, 49-year-old Joseph Michael Simpson had asked them to give him hope that he might one day see outside of prison walls, despite being convicted of the Dec. 15, 1995, slaying 17-year-old Krystal Lynn Beslanowitch.

"I know it's going to be 20, maybe 30 years down the road," he said, "But it's still hope that I can have another chance."

On Friday, prosecutors asked jurors that Simpson never be released, telling them he was on parole for a 1987 second-degree felony murder conviction when he killed Beslanowitch.

"Mr. Simpson stabbed a man multiple times and left him lying there with a knife still in his back," Deputy Wasatch County Attorney McKay King told jurors. "And then, when he got out on parole, he took rocks to Krystal Beslanowitch's head until she was his second victim."
 

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