OGDEN — Prosecutors are not commenting on why they want to take DNA samples from a woman whose backyard contained a body.
Prosecutors filed the motion to get DNA samples from Sarah Munn, of Roy, on July 5 with Judge Noel Hyde in 2nd District Court in Ogden.
Munn has been charged with obstruction of justice, a second-degree felony, in connection with the body in her backyard.
“We filed that motion to get the DNA as part of the investigation,” Weber County Attorney Dee Smith said Wednesday.
Munn had a court hearing in Ogden on Tuesday and another court hearing on Wednesday in Farmington. Judges in both cases have set additional hearings in October.
Munn is charged in Farmington with harboring a fugitive from justice, a third-degree felony.
Layton police filed that charge against her in September 2011 after she told them she had not seen Daniel Rivera, the father of her three children, since he walked away from a work crew while in Weber County Jail in August 2011.
Police later learned that Munn had been with Rivera on Aug. 23, 2011.
Rivera was later arrested and has been in Utah Sate Prison since last fall on escape charges unrelated to the discovery of the body.
On Feb. 10, Roy and Layton police found the body of Victor Flores, 25, of San Gabriel, Calif.
According to the motion that was filed, investigators “removed blood and serological evidence from a potential homicide crime scene. The deceased victim’s body was found buried approximately three feet below ground in Sarah Munn’s backyard.”
Investigators are asking for samples of Munn’s “blood, hair, fingernail scrapings and other bodily materials,” according to the court document.
Flores had come to Utah in 2011, and his family reported him missing in May 2011. Police said in March that Flores had been stabbed to death and that Rivera was one of the last people to see him alive. Rivera rented a tractor in May 2011 to dig a hole in Munn’s backyard and then he later filled it in.
Smith said he could not comment on whether investigators believe Munn may have helped bury the body.
As to how soon his office will file charges, Smith said, “It’s hard to say. We’ve sent a number of items to the state crime lab for analysis, and until it’s completed we won’t be filing any charges.”
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