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Brian Skoloff

Sister recalls Boy Scout lost in 1961 Zion flood

Last updated Friday, May 11, 2012 - 5:00pm

HOLLADAY — Doralee Freebairn remembers the day well. It was September 1961. Her older brother was on a Boy Scouts trip, hiking in the canyons of Zion National Park.

She was in the yard at home in Salt Lake City watering plants when news crackled over the radio. There had been a massive flash flood in the Narrows.

Boy Scouts, Skull, Utah, Flood Read more Comments

This photo released on April 23, 2012 by the Utah County Sheriff's Department shows one of the booby traps taken from a crude shelter made of dead tree limbs found in a Provo Canyon. Two men have been arrested on suspicion of setting the traps and were booked Saturday into the county jail for investigation of misdemeanor reckless endangerment. (AP Photo/Utah County Sheriff Department)

Hiking trail booby traps were found by military expert

Brian Skoloff, Paul Foy The Associated Press

Last updated Wednesday, April 25, 2012 - 2:47pm

PROVO — U.S. Forest Service Officer James Schoeffler is trained to spot the suspicious.

He spent 12 years in the military as a bomb disposal technician dismantling deadly devices in Iraq, Afghanistan and the Balkans.

But he never expected to find the two crudely designed and potentially deadly booby traps he said he spotted last week off a popular Utah hiking trail.

Crime, Booby traps, Hiking trail, Utah Read more Comments

Sex offender to remain free in Utah

Brian Skoloff, Paul Foy The Associated Press

Last updated Wednesday, April 18, 2012 - 4:45pm

PROVO -- A judge has denied a petition from prosecutors to civilly commit a convicted rapist held while doctors continue to work toward making him competent to stand trial on nearly two dozen rape and assault charges.

The move set Lonnie Hyrum Johnson free -- again.

Crime, Competent, Sex Assault, Sex offenders, Utah, Rape Read more Comments

Sex offender returns for competency hearing in Provo

Brian Skoloff, Paul Foy The Associated Press

Last updated Wednesday, April 18, 2012 - 1:58pm

PROVO -- A convicted sex offender who faces nearly two dozen counts of rape and assault in Utah -- but remains free under a legal loophole -- is still incompetent to stand trial and may never be fit enough to face the charges, two doctors testified Wednesday.

Child Sex Abuse, Crime, Competency, Mental illness, Sex abuse, Sex offenders, Utah Read more Comments

Helen Radkey is a researcher who has publicized the LDS Church's proxy baptisms of Holocaust victims and Catholic Saints. In this 2009 photograph, she goes through some of her numerous boxes of research files on the baptisms that take up part of an extra bedroom in her home. Mormon church leaders have put up a virtual firewall in their massive genealogical database to block out anyone who attempts to gain access to already red-flagged names of Holocaust victims. (AP Photo/The Salt Lake Tribune, Al Hartmann)

LDS Church restricts access to Jewish names

Brian Skoloff The Associated Press

Last updated Thursday, March 8, 2012 - 6:31pm

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — LDS Church leaders have put up a virtual firewall in their massive genealogical database to block out anyone who attempts to access the names of hundreds of thousands of Holocaust victims the church has agreed not to posthumously baptize.

baptism for the dead, Jews, Mormon baptisms, Mormons, proxy baptisms, Religion, LDS Church, National Read more Comments

LDS Church to warn members of proxy baptisms

Brian Skoloff The Associated Press

Last updated Friday, March 2, 2012 - 7:30pm

SALT LAKE CITY — LDS Church leaders say the church’s policy of not performing posthumous baptisms of Holocaust victims and others unrelated to its members will be reiterated worldwide during Sunday services.

Baptism of the dead, Holocaust, Jews, Mormons, proxy baptisms, Utah, LDS Church Read more Comments

Claim surfaces of Anne Frank baptism by Mormons

Brian Skoloff, Michelle Riddles The Associated Press

Last updated Thursday, February 23, 2012 - 11:31pm

SALT LAKE CITY — A new claim has surfaced that the Mormon church has posthumously baptized a Holocaust victim, this time Anne Frank.

Jews, Mormon baptisms, Mormons, Religion, Utah, LDS Church Read more Comments

FILE - This undated file photo provided by the Iron County Sheriff's Office in January, shows a man who authorities on Tuesday, Feb. 21, 2012 identified as Troy James Knapp, walking past a cabin in the remote southern Utah wildness near Zion National Park. Authorities say Knapp, captured by a motion-triggered surveillance camera sometime in December, has been linked to more than two dozen cabin burglaries over the past five years. (AP Photo/Iron County Sheriff, File)

Authorities ID S. Utah mountain man sought in burglaries

Brian Skoloff, Paul Foy The Associated Press

Last updated Wednesday, February 22, 2012 - 10:47am

CEDAR CITY -- Troy James Knapp is a wanted man, a mountain recluse authorities say is responsible for more than two dozen cabin burglaries in the remote southern Utah wilderness. He's considered armed and dangerous, a ticking time bomb.

Outdoors, Crime, Burglary, Cabins, Manhunt, Mountain Man, Utah, Wilderness Read more Comments

This undated photo provided by the Iron County Sheriff's Office shows confiscated evidence found at a remote camp littered with supplies and trash in the southern Utah wildness near Zion National Park. Authorities believe the material at the camp was left behind by a suspect in more than two dozen burglaries of mountain cabins over an area of roughly 1,000 square miles for the past five years. (AP Photo/Iron County Sheriff)

Mountain man scares owners of remote Utah cabins

Brian Skoloff, Paul Foy The Associated Press

Last updated Friday, February 17, 2012 - 10:44am

ST. GEORGE -- He's eluded authorities for more than five years, a mountain man who roams the wilderness of southern Utah, breaking into remote cabins in winter, living in luxury off hot food, alcohol and coffee before stealing provisions and vanishing into the woods.

Outdoors, Cabins, Mountain Man, Mystery, Utah, Wilderness, Featured Read more Comments

Susan Powell case now called a murder

Brian Skoloff, Mike Baker The Associated Press

Last updated Tuesday, February 7, 2012 - 5:37pm

OLYMPIA, Wash. — Authorities have been investigating the disappearance of Susan Powell as a murder for at least several months, while they publicly left open the possibility that the Utah mother might be found alive.

Crime, Murder, Missing Person, Susan Powell, Utah, National Read more Comments

In this pool photo provided by the Pierce County Sheriff's Dept., an investigator walks through the garage area, Monday, Feb. 6, 2012, in the rubble of the home in Graham, Wash., where Josh Powell and his two sons were killed Sunday in what police said appeared to be a deliberately set fire. Powell's wife Susan went mysteriously missing from their West Valley City, Utah, home in December 2009. (AP Photo/Pierce County Sheriff's Dept., Ed Troyer, Pool)

Josh Powell left voicemail to family before setting deadly blaze

Brian Skoloff, Mike Baker The Associated Press

Last updated Tuesday, February 7, 2012 - 5:12pm

GRAHAM, Wash. — Before setting his house ablaze and killing himself and his two young sons, Josh Powell left a voicemail for family members saying he couldn’t live without the boys and didn’t want to go on anymore.

Arson, Explosion, Josh Powell, Murder-suicide, Utah, Featured, National Read more Comments

Fire investigators walk in front of charred rubble, Monday, Feb. 6, 2012, at the home where Josh Powell and his two sons were killed Sunday, in Graham, Wash., in what police said appeared to be a deliberately set fire. Powell's wife Susan went mysteriously missing from their West Valley City, Utah, home in December 2009. (AP Photo/Ted S. Warren)

Police say Powell planned deadly fire for some time

Brian Skoloff, Gene Johnson, Mike Baker The Associated Press

Last updated Tuesday, February 7, 2012 - 6:30am

GRAHAM, Wash. — Josh Powell planned the house fire that killed him and his young sons for some time, dropping toys at a charity over the weekend and sending final emails to several acquaintances in the minutes before the blaze, authorities said Monday.

Explosion, Josh Powell, Murder-suicide, Utah, Featured, Fire, National Read more Comments

A Pierce County fire investigator walks through debris, Monday, Feb. 6, 2012, at the home where Josh Powell and his two sons were killed Sunday, in Graham, Wash., in what police said appeared to be a deliberately set fire. Powell's wife Susan went mysteriously missing from their West Valley City, Utah, home in December 2009. (AP Photo/Ted S. Warren)

Grandparents: Powell boys played happily before fatal visit

Brian Skoloff, Gene Johnson, Mike Barker The Associated Press

Last updated Monday, February 6, 2012 - 4:47pm

GRAHAM, Wash. — The maternal grandparents of Josh Powell’s two sons said Monday that the boys played happily and didn’t want to visit their father when the time came for their weekly Sunday visit.

Child custody, Explosion, Josh Powell, Missing Person, Murder-suicide, Susan Powell, Utah, Featured, National Read more Comments

Salt Lake Police website not the only one to be hacked

Brian Skoloff, Denise Lavoie The Associated Press

Last updated Friday, February 3, 2012 - 3:31pm

SALT LAKE CITY -- Saboteurs have hacked into the websites of several law enforcement agencies worldwide in attacks attributed to the collective called Anonymous, including in Boston and in Salt Lake City, where police say personal information of confidential informants and tipsters was accessed.

Hackers, Internet, Police, Utah, Websites, National Read more Comments

Tremonton boy died from gunpowder explosion

Brian Skoloff The Associated Press

Last updated Monday, January 30, 2012 - 5:18pm

TREMONTON — A 14-year-old boy who accidentally killed himself with a miniature cannon died after suffering severe head and face trauma from the powerful blast, not from being hit with a projectile, authorities said Monday.

Fatal, Toy cannon, Utah, Accident Read more Comments