A Utah man was arrested and is facing charges after he tortured a teenager to death in front of his girlfriend before murdering her and throwing them both down a well:
A Utah man forced a teenage girl to kneel and watch her boyfriend being beaten and stabbed before she was killed and thrown down an abandoned mine shaft, prosecutors said.
Charging documents filed Tuesday say 41-year-old Jerrod W. Baum killed the pair moments after congratulating them because he believed they were expecting a baby. However, authorities say 17-year-old Brelynne “Breezy” Otteson was not pregnant.
Baum was charged with two counts of aggravated murder, kidnapping, desecration of a human body. He could face the death penalty if convicted in the murders of Otteson and her boyfriend, 18-year-old Riley Powell.
The teens had been missing for three months before police recovered their bodies inside a deep mine shaft last week near Eureka, about 75 miles south of Salt Lake City.
Police said Baum killed the couple after they visited his girlfriend despite him warning against her having male visitors.
Family members of the two teenagers said they didn’t know Baum, and were at a tragic loss to explain what happened.
“What went wrong? Why did he have so much hate? There’s no reason,” father Bill Powell told reporters.
“You don’t kill kids out of jealousy,” Otteson’s aunt Amanda Hunt said, adding that finding their bodies after months of searching puts at least some questions to rest.
Court records show Baum has a rap sheet dating back to the early 1990s including theft, assault and weapons charges.
Last year, Baum and his girlfriend were found in a car near Yuba State Park with a tactical knife tucked in the small of his back and another knife on a necklace under his shirt, along with a container of meth, a pistol and prescription drugs, according to court records. He was convicted of weapon and drug charges in that case.
Baum was also accused of helping his girlfriend load and stash a handgun in their home earlier this year, despite being barred from possessing a gun as a convicted felon. He has not yet entered a plea in that case. (source)