Lots of evidence, few interviews collected in Saratoga Springs double murder investigation

SARATOGA SPRINGS — Recently unsealed search warrants provide more insight into the ongoing investigation into the shooting deaths of a Saratoga Springs mother and her son.

The five warrants, all served in early June, discuss the ongoing search for the gun used to kill Jessica Orton Lyman, 44, and her 8-year-old son, Eli Painter, some of the evidence collected to that point, and the challenges police have had in talking to the surviving members of Lyman’s family.

Saratoga Springs police were called to Lyman’s townhome, 1244 N. Willowbrook Lane, on March 28 after her 17-year-old daughter arrived home and found her mother and 8-year-old brother lying on the floor in her mother’s bedroom, according to court records.

Eli, who was shot twice in the head, was pronounced dead at the scene. Lyman was taken to a local hospital in extremely critical condition and she died a couple of days later.

Police also found Lyman’s 15-year-old son in the house. He said he had been sleeping and did not hear anything, according to police. When an officer asked him if there were any “weapons” in the home, the teen “responded that he wasn’t aware of any ‘guns’ inside the home. At that point, (the boy) had not been told by EMS or police officers that the incident involved a gun or gunshot wounds,” according to one of the unsealed search warrants filed in 4th District Court.

Investigators also found evidence that Lyman may have been sexually assaulted, the warrants state.

The teen boy’s room was searched by police, according to a warrant unsealed in July. Officers found two BB gun pistols, plate carriers and magazine pouches, and a handwritten note referencing “several forms of forensic evidence,” including “serology,” “DNA” and “firearm testing,” according to the affidavit. “(A detective) also located a second handwritten note stating, ‘This is a murder story.'”

The newly unsealed warrants state, “Additionally, detectives located a note where (the teen) indicated that he wanted to kill himself.”

In the days following the discovery of Lyman and her deceased son, “officers from the Saratoga Springs Police Department conducted large amounts of canvassing in the area/neighborhood surrounding (the Lyman home),” according to the warrants.

Multiple videos recorded between 2 a.m. and 3 a.m. by residential surveillance cameras in the area of Willowbrook Lane and Silvercrest Road show “a suspicious individual who appears to be wearing a black and white mask, a dark hoodie, shorts, long black socks and possibly slip-on shoes or ‘sliders.’ This individual appears to be walking through the neighborhood while clearly trying to avoid motion-activated Ring doorbell cameras. The suspicious person is seen walking into the breezeway immediately north of the residence where the incident occurred. In one of the first videos where the suspicious person is observed, it appears as if the individual is wearing a backpack,” according to the warrants.

On April 13, a couple walking their dog discovered a discarded backpack “in the reeds along the riverside,” the search warrant affidavits state.

Saratoga Springs police took the backpack to the police department, opened it, and found “a dark hoodie and rubber gardening gloves” that appeared to have dried blood on them, according to the warrants. Homicide detectives working the Lyman case were then called and continued searching the backpack and “observed that there was also black beanie-style hat, a small flashlight, a head lamp, and a black neck gaiter-style facemask that had a partial white skull/jaw printed on it.”

Investigators also found “a large amount of animal hair throughout the backpack and on many of the items. This animal hair was similar to the cat and dog hair that was found throughout the residence where the homicide occurred,” the warrants state. “Furthermore, the black beanie-style hat also contained what appeared to be human hair on the inside of the hat. The mask also appears consistent with and or looks similar to the mask worn by the suspicious male seen on Ring doorbell videos walking through the neighborhood on the morning of March 28.”

Additionally, detectives served another search warrant on Lyman’s home on April 23 and reported finding one black Nike slide/slipper in the teen boy’s room.

“Detectives have observed (the teen) wearing these shoes in multiple pictures found on (his) phone, and they appear similar to the shoes worn by the masked suspect seen walking through the neighborhood on various doorbell cameras,” one warrant says.

Those items were then sent to the Utah State Crime Lab for testing. The results were still pending at the time the warrant was drafted.

During the afternoon of March 28 — the day the shooting victims were discovered — the 15-year-old boy was taken to the Saratoga Springs Police Department with his father accompanying him.

“During this time, (he) repeatedly asked for his cellphone, so much so that at one point his father snapped at him, told him to ‘stop worrying about his cellphone,’ and that getting his cellphone back ‘wasn’t important right now.’ When considering this information combined with the fact that (the teen) was allegedly home asleep at the time of the incident, detectives believe that information from (his) phone will help establish a timeline of when he was awake and or that it might contain other information that could be used to help establish when the crime occurred,” according to one of the warrants.

But police also noted in their warrants written in June that since speaking with detectives on March 28, they had “been unable to speak with (the 15-year-old). Detectives have been informed that (he) is being represented by counsel and that on the advice of counsel, he is unwilling to speak with the investigators.”

Detectives also learned that the teen “spent a large amount of time online and using/playing a VR headset” and have served search warrants on his cellphone, tablets and other electronic devices.

In one search warrant, investigators looked for the keywords “mask,” “22” and “backpack” in the search history of those electronic devices. Investigators say the gun used to kill Lyman and her son was a .22 caliber weapon.

“Detectives have been told that (the teen) has been staying at (his father’s home in Cedar Hills) for the majority of the time since the incident occurred on March 28, except for a period of several days where (he) was admitted into a behavioral unit” at an area hospital, one affidavit says.

Police say investigators also “found several photographs taken by (the teen) of him holding a black Glock 9mm handgun in his bedroom at (his father’s) house,” according to one warrant. “Detectives believe that this clearly shows that (the teen) had access to firearms while living at (his father’s) house and that this access appears to have been unsupervised, as the pictures do not show anyone else is present while (he) is taking pictures of the guns while in his room.”

Lyman’s daughter was interviewed by police on March 30. She showed investigators texts between her and her mother, as well as her call log, the night before the shootings. The girl also talked about a suspicious man that her mother had met at a park several weeks earlier.

But detectives also note in their June affidavit that “since this first and only interview with (the daughter) on March 30, detectives have been told that (her father) will no longer allow (her) to be interviewed by detectives without a lawyer being present. Detectives have requested to be able to interview (her) but have not heard back.”

Detectives also spoke to Lyman’s ex-husband on April 17 with his attorney present. Police asked if he had surveillance cameras at his Cedar Hills home or video from the night of the killings.

“(He) told detectives that he did have cameras and that he did have surveillance video from the night of the homicides. While telling detectives this, he offered to show detectives the footage on his phone, at which point (his) attorney told detectives that they would review the video before releasing/providing it to detectives. Since the interview, detectives have requested the video multiple times but have been told that it is taking a while due to the ‘size of the files requested.’ It has now been over one month since the interview with (the father), where the video was initially requested, and the video has still not been provided to the detectives,” the warrant states.

On May 20, detectives served a search warrant on the father’s home and collected his phone and his daughter’s phone.

“The search also produced ammunition, including .22 caliber bullets, (the 15-year-old boy’s) VR headset, and various items of evidentiary value,” according to a warrant.

A return to that search warrant states that detectives also found the matching black Nike slide shoe on a closet floor “under multiple bins” and something listed as “printed safety plan documents” in the teen boy’s closet.

“Also, since the execution of the original search warrant, members of Utah County search and rescue searched the nearby Jordan River for weapons. Dogs — specially trained to locate metallic objects, including guns — were deployed throughout the subdivision, and drones were used to search the area from the air for weapons. No weapons were found,” the warrants stated in June.

Search crews recently returned to the Jordan River and the surrounding marshy area to conduct another search. As of Friday, Saratoga Springs police have not publicly named any possible suspects in the killings.