UT - Tiffany Hambleton, 14, stabbed to death, Salt Lake City, 17 Feb 1986

mysteriew

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A man arrested on a solicitation charge in a 1986 police sting operation could be linked to the nearly 20-year-old slaying of a teenage girl.

According to a search warrant affidavit made public Thursday in 3rd District Court, detectives have retrieved two vials of blood from a man they suspect was involved in the stabbing death of 14-year-old Tiffany Hambleton.
The suspect's common-law wife at the time called police after he came home "covered in blood," court documents say. He reportedly refused to go to a hospital "because they ask too many questions" and only wanted the woman to help him stitch up a wound on his rib cage. She also told police his arms and clothing were spattered with blood.
After the two divorced, according to the affidavit, the woman told police in August 2005 that the man admitted to having sex with more than 25 prostitutes. She said he had been "obsessed with State Street prostitutes, had a fascination with knives and had threatened her with a knife on multiple occasions."
http://deseretnews.com/dn/view/0,1249,615154726,00.html
 
May be a case of a serial killer. Too bad the wife waited to tell. I always like when they connect one killer with more than one case. It means that many more people are safe with them off the street.
 
Doesn't make the cops look real good. He comes home bloody, with a wound in his side, and his common law wife calls the cops. Now almost 20 yrs later they have grounds for a murder charge. Why didn't they investigate this 20 yrs ago.
 
So, they basically ignored her call? That is awful.
 
SewingDeb said:
So, they basically ignored her call? That is awful.

I could be reading this wrong, but I thought the ex-wife didn't tell LE until August 2005. The case was revived a year ago as a 'cold case file.' It looks like when LE went to look into it, that's when the ex came forward.

JMHO
fran
 
fran said:
I could be reading this wrong, but I thought the ex-wife didn't tell LE until August 2005. The case was revived a year ago as a 'cold case file.' It looks like when LE went to look into it, that's when the ex came forward.

JMHO
fran

You may be right. The previous story is written in such a way as to suggest she called the police then. The way this article is written, I can't be sure.

The person of interest's then-common law wife reported around April 1, 1986, to police that he had come home "covered with blood," according to the search warrant documents.
When a Salt Lake City police detective talked to the woman on Aug. 12, 2005, she said didn't know the exact day that incident took place but it was around the time the man was arrested for soliciting a prostitute - four weeks after Hambleton disappeared and two weeks before her body was found, according to the documents.
http://www.sltrib.com/ci_3074417?rss
 
Wow! That is confusing. I don't know then. I can't believe they would sit on it for so many years, though. :eek:

fran
 
fran said:
I could be reading this wrong, but I thought the ex-wife didn't tell LE until August 2005. The case was revived a year ago as a 'cold case file.' It looks like when LE went to look into it, that's when the ex came forward.

JMHO
fran

I hope that is the case. I would hate to think LE ignored it at the time. If she did not speak up at the time, she should have.
 
Hmmm....now I'm back to why didn't they take it seriously at the time.
 
A man is on trial right now for Tiffany's murder but I don't know if it is the same POI mentioned in the first post on this thread.

DNA expert says he made mistake in murder trial testimony

Trial for Dan. L. Peterson in the 1986 killing of 14-year-old Tiffany Hambleton took a bizarre turn Wednesday morning, as a key expert state witness re-took the stand and back-tracked from a statement he made in testimony the day before.
And a defense witness also retreated from prior statements to police that he saw Hambleton alive after prosecutors say she was killed.
Tim Kupferschmid, lab director for Sorenson Forensics, told a jury of seven men and three women that he misspoke when he testified that more than one man's DNA was found on the fingernails of a girl killed 21 years ago.
"There was potentially, inconclusively some other person's DNA there," Kupferschmid said during cross-examination from the defense. "We couldn't say whether or not it was there."

http://www.sltrib.com/news/ci_6688596

~much more at link~
 
This article is dated June 27, 2007

Murder Suspect Passed Lie Detector 21 Years Ago

SALT LAKE CITY A man accused of murder passed a lie detector test, but his jury will never know it. Dan Petersen was investigated for murder 21 years ago, and released.

http://kutv.com/topstories/local_story_178210154.html
 
August 2007:

Petersen said he invited Hambleton and her friends at the concert to join him and his friends at his place for a post-concert party. He and Hambleton engaged in sexual activity and then he agreed to take her home at 4 a.m., but his truck ran out of gas near 3900 South and State Street. He wanted them to sleep in the truck, Petersen said, but Hambleton took off walking to get home. He said he slept in the truck to keep it from being stolen and walked home the next day, returning later with other men to gas up the vehicle. He has always denied killing her.
Three male jurors, who declined to give their names, agreed to meet with reporters after the trial.

All said they essentially were convinced there was reasonable doubt that Petersen killed the girl, although there was plenty of evidence he had had sexual contact with her and had lied about that to police for years.

"The DNA evidence was strong, but it was DNA evidence of sex but not DNA evidence of murder," one man said.

http://m.deseretnews.com/article/695203917/Man-acquitted-in-86-Salt-Lake-killing.html?pg=all

Dan Peterson in court
690228316.jpg
 
Couldn't they prosecute him for statutory rape, then? Then at least he could do some time in prison and be registered as a sex offender.
 

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