Murder mystery

WEST VALLEY CITY  -- The city's mayor is defending his police department's handling of the Susan Powell case, insisting it did everything it could to resolve it.

JonBenet Ramsey's father, John Ramsey, has finally acknowledged what many Americans have long wanted to hear: He regrets showcasing his daughter in beauty pageants and parades. He also suggests that putting the girl front-and-center in the public eye might have contributed to the 6-year-old's killing.

SALT LAKE CITY -- Salt Lake City homicide detectives are seeking a DNA sample that could keep alive a cold case from 1995.

LEWISTON, Idaho -- Four small yellow flags were the only indication of what lay below the frozen grass at Normal Hill Cemetery.

Using a square-bladed shovel, Greg Morton of Wilbert Precast quickly cut the sod into strips, setting it neatly to one side. With plywood protecting the grass, the bucket on a front-end loader, exactly the width of a grave, carved a hole the length and width of the concrete vault buried several feet down.

It was a sizable crowd that gathered to watch the grave of an unknown young man being reopened Wednesday morning: Nez Perce County deputies who obtained the $2,000 grant that will pay for the costs associated with exhumation, city police officers, the county coroner and his deputy, the grave diggers, a mortician and the news media.

SALT LAKE CITY -- The family of a slain South Salt Lake bookseller will mark the one-year anniversary of her death with a graveside memorial service.

LONDON -- It's been called the world's most famous cold case, a source of endless fascination and speculation ever since the first mutilated victim was found in a bloody heap 123 years ago on the gas-lighted streets of East London.

So why is Scotland Yard suppressing information that some crime buffs think could offer fresh leads on the identity of Britain's most notorious serial killer, Jack the Ripper?