Evelynne Derricott’s body was found at her home in October 2011. The police were looking for the killer at the time. When the beloved grandmother looked like she was being burglarized, it took a long time for the person who did it to be caught. Episodes of “On the Case With Paula Zahn: Hammer and Dust” show how DNA evidence helped to catch the killer. Evelynne’s case is one of the topics. So, if you want to learn more, we’ve got your back.
Evelynne Derricott: How Did She Die?
Her home in Tooele, Utah, was a place where Evelynne lived alone. The 69-year-old married Brent Derricott in 1970, and they had two daughters, Candice and Cathlynn, who are now both grown up. He died in 1997, but she kept living in the family home. Evelynne worked as a transportation officer for more than two decades before the accident. She retired a few years before the accident. People in the neighbourhood knew her. She was having a good time when something bad happened.
Before noon on October 7, 2011, Evelynne’s neighbour went to see if everything was okay with her. When she didn’t hear from the 69-year-old, she thought she was going to get hurt. neighbour: The door was unlocked and Evelynne’s body was on the stairs in front of her. She was dead. She called 911 right away. Evelynne had been killed in a very violent way, according to the police. They found a hammer at the scene that had been used to hit her in the head 14 times.
Evelynne Derricott: Who Killed Her?
The police found that there were no signs of a fight or forced entry into the house. There was nothing of value missing except Evelynne’s heart medicine, which was not shown on the show. Garage: Not so much. It looked like the killer left in Evelynne’s car, giving the police a good place to start. It wasn’t just the bloody hammer. There was also a footprint on a ladder in the garage.
The police then tried to find the car. They found out that Evelynne’s phone was also in the car, so they could get a rough idea of where it was by pinging it. Evelynne’s car was found by the police in Kearns, Utah, more than 30 miles from her home, the day after the crime was reported. Inside, her phone and other things were. It was after this that the steering wheel and the hammer were sent through for touch DNA testing.
Examination showed that the same unidentified male DNA profile was found on both the hammer and the steering wheel, which means the killer did not work with anyone else. When I went to look on the database, there were no matches at the time. When the police tried to make an arrest in 2016, they had to wait until 2016. At the time, they used familial DNA analysis to find people who were related to the unidentified person they found.
By putting together a family tree, the police were able to find Rogelio Diaz Jr. His family was already in the database. Another thing: The show said that Rogelio’s address was in the neighbourhood where Evelynne’s car was found, and he looked like the person the police were looking for. At the time, he was about 23 years old. He was arrested in May of 2016. He also said that he had nothing to do with the crime and that he had never been in Evelynne’s house or car.
Rogelio Diaz Jr: Where Is He At Present?
Rogelio was thought to have been surprised by Evelynne as he tried to break into her house. Then, because he was so scared, he hit her in the head several times and ran away from the scene. He agreed to plead guilty to lesser charges of manslaughter and aggravated burglary in December 2019, when the trial was about to start and before he could go on trial. He was given two consecutive sentences of one year to fifteen years and five years to life. Prison records say that Rogelio is still being held at the Central Utah Correctional Facility in Gunnison, Utah.