Police still investigating 6 months after Saratoga Springs double homicide
Sep 26, 2025, 5:00 PM
FILE: Saratoga Springs Police investigate a death and injury of possibly another person in a home on Friday, March 28, 2025. (Scott G Winterton, Deseret News)
(Scott G Winterton, Deseret News)
SARATOGA SPRINGS – Police said Friday the investigation into the shooting deaths of a 44-year-old woman and her 8-year-old son is “active and ongoing,” but nobody has been arrested six months after the two were discovered in their Utah County home.
Jessica Orton Lyman and her son, Eli Painter, were both found shot the morning of March 28 inside their townhome at 1244 N. Willowbrook Lane in Saratoga Springs. Eli was pronounced dead at the scene, while Lyman died several days later.
Search warrants unveiled this summer suggested Lyman may have been sexually assaulted. The warrants also offered insight into a tense relationship between Lyman and her 15-year-old son, who was home at the time but told police he had been in his room taking a nap.
Yet, to date, no suspect has been publicly named in the killings.
“The Saratoga Springs Police Department is committed not only to identifying and arresting the responsible individual(s) but also to ensuring a successful prosecution,” officials said in a statement Friday to KSL TV. No further details were provided.
In search warrants unsealed in July, Saratoga Springs police said Lyman and Eli were both shot in the head.
Investigators found several items in the 15-year-old’s bedroom, including a handwritten note that said, “This is a murder story,” according to a search warrant.
Detectives also gathered evidence from surveillance footage showing a person putting a “white mask over his face” near Lyman’s townhome early that morning, according to search warrants, and a similar mask was recovered from the teen’s bedroom.
At the time the search warrants were unsealed, family members of the two victims released a statement urging people to contact police with information that could help solve the case.
“Not a moment passes that we don’t feel the weight of this unimaginable loss. Our family is forever changed,” they said. “While we continue to wait for answers, we remain hopeful that justice will be served and those responsible will be held accountable.”
