SOUTH OGDEN An audio recording that captured a killer s unwitting confession and broke open a murder case after years of inaction is coming to light in the latest episode of the KSL podcast Cold.
The recording was the pivotal piece of evidence that confirmed what police had believed for years, but which they d been unable to prove: Douglas Lovell had murdered Joyce Yost to prevent her from testifying against him in a 1985 sexual assault case. I committed a first-degree felony to cover another felony. It s the death penalty, Lovell said on the recording.
Only a few snippets of the recording have previously been shared publicly, presented as evidence in court to establish Lovell s guilt. Those clips clearly showed Lovell understood the gravity of what he d done, as well as the consequences if he were to be convicted.
A former Utah defense lawyer has received a $250,000 settlement after suing Weber County for allegedly firing him in retaliation for his public criticism…
Deseret News
Share this story
Family photo
In a case of he said, she said, who is a judge or jury to believe when “she” isn’t actually there to say anything?
The disappearance of Joyce Yost 10 days before she was scheduled to testify in a felony kidnapping and sexual assault trial left prosecutors in an unusual position. They faced the task of trying the case without a victim in court acting as the accuser and key witness.
“It was the first time we prosecuted a rape case without a victim in the state of Utah,” former Clearfield police detective William Holthaus said. “We were pretty nervous.”
KSL TV
OGDEN A man with a distinctive stammer phoned police 34 years ago and claimed to have found a body in the mountains near Causey, a reservoir on the South Fork of the Ogden River. I didn t touch the body or anything because I didn t want to get fingerprints on it, OK, the man told a dispatcher, but I noticed there was a purse there.
The man refused to identify himself or provide more specific information about where police might find the body, saying only that it was two to three miles back from the reservoir. The man hung up when a Weber County dispatcher told him she needed to put him in touch with an investigator.
Deseret News
Share this story
Salt Lake County Jail
Police and prosecutors had at least three opportunities following the April 3, 1985, rape of Joyce Yost to prevent the man who had sexually assaulted her from making good on his threat to return and take her life.
Breakdowns in communication between multiple individuals, agencies and Utah’s courts allowed the suspect, Douglas Anderson Lovell, to repeatedly leave custody before he at last returned to Yost’s apartment and killed her.
Lovell has spent the last 35 years in prison and faces the death penalty for killing Yost days before she was to testify against him in court. Yost’s body has never been located.