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It was around 7:45pm on Monday November 16 2009 when a 911 operator in Utah picked up a call from a woman named Pamela Mortenson. She explained that she and her husband had just survived a home invasion at a house belonging to Pamela's father-in-law, Kay Mortenson. Pamela said the perpetrators had tied her and her husband up in the living room while telling them Kay was restrained on the second floor.
Pamela seemed unable to recall how many offenders were involved, hesitating as she said, "There could have been three." She explained they had been ordered not to look at the intruders, so she couldn't describe their features. Pamela also claimed it had been too dark for her to see what kind of car they were driving. When asked if the intruders had been white, black or Hispanic, Pamela replied in a slightly terse tone, "Ma'am, I don't know."
The operator found the call strange. For someone who had just lived through such a traumatic experience, Pamela's voice was calm and steady. Her answers were also vague and unhelpful. Pamela said that she thought her father-in-law might be dead, but she wasn't sure. The operator asked to speak to Pamela's husband, Roger Mortenson, instead. When Roger took the phone, he said there had been two intruders and both were white.
They had stolen his driver's license from his wallet and threatened to harm Roger and his family if he called the police. Roger explained that after the intruders left and he'd escaped his restraints, he went upstairs to find his father. Kay Mortenson was on the bathroom floor, cold to the touch. Roger remarked matter-of-factly, he's leaned over facing forward in the bathtub with his throat sliced with a butcher knife all the way up.
The operator asked if Roger knew why anyone would want to harm Kay. Roger answered, "Yeah. He's rich." Deputies from the County Sheriff's Department were dispatched to Kay Mortenson's address near Payson, Utah. The large house sat on a hill at the end of a winding driveway and was one of two houses owned by 70-year-old Kay.
He and his wife Darla spent most of their time at their primary residence in St. George, about 250 miles south near the Arizona border. But they usually checked in on the Payson property about twice a month. Lately, they hadn't been there much at all. Both Kay and Darla were devoted members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Three weeks earlier, they'd completed an 18-month mission together at Fort Cove, Utah.
The older couple had only been married for about three years and had bonded over their dedication to their church. Kay's 48-year-old son Roger, the eldest of his three adult children, lived near the Payson residence and had been checking on it often while they were away. Shortly after Kay and Darla finished their mission, Kay went to stay at the house while Darla went to look after her granddaughters in Salt Lake City, which was about an hour away.
Darla was due to rejoin her husband later that night, and then she and Kay had been planning to return to their St. George residence the next day. Kay's son Roger and his 34-year-old wife Pamela told investigators that was why they'd decided to go over that evening. They thought it might be nice to spend some time with Kay and Darla before they left. Pamela had phoned Darla's cell phone and asked if they'd like to play board games later that evening.
Darla agreed. Pamela had received a pecan pie at work earlier that day, and knowing it was Kay's favourite, she and Roger decided to bring it with them. Roger and Pamela provided a more detailed version of the story they'd shared with 911. Prior to going to Kay's house, they had tried calling his landline and his cell phone. Both calls went unanswered.
This wasn't unusual, as sometimes Kay would doze off and not hear his phones. Roger and Pamela drove over with the pecan pie just as dusk was falling. When they arrived at Kay's house, they noticed an unfamiliar car parked in the driveway. Roger identified it as a compact hatchback-style vehicle that was dark in color, possibly blue. Lights were on inside the house.
Figuring that perhaps Kay had company over and that's why he hadn't answered the phone, Roger and Pamela knocked on the door. It was answered by an unfamiliar young white male who the couple said they thought was a handyman. Kay had been having issues with his internet connection lately and was also planning on replacing some carpet. Pamela assumed the man was there to help with one of those tasks.
Pamela asked if Kay was home, and the man said yes, he was upstairs. Pamela explained that they were there to drop off a pie, and the man replied, go ahead. Pamela and Roger entered the home, and Pamela made her way up a set of interior steps that led inside. Then she heard the man ask her to come back down, as the front door clicked shut behind her.
At the same time, a second man appeared on the staircase that led to the first floor and began walking towards them. In his hands were a number of zip ties and a black, semi-automatic handgun. "You're in the wrong place at the wrong time," he told the couple. He ordered them to bind each other's wrists with the zip ties before marching them into Kay's living room.
According to Roger and Pamela, they were clean-cut white men aged in their early to mid-20s and dressed in Levi jeans and t-shirts. Both had short hair that appeared to have been dyed black and moustaches or "goaties". The couple said they looked the same.
Roger believed they were the same height and size as him, making them around 5 foot 9 and between 150 to 165 pounds. Roger tried to bargain with the men, begging, "'Just let us leave. Let us take our pecan pie and leave.' But the men refused, making the couple kneel on the living room floor in front of the television instead."
Then they bound their ankles with zip ties as well. When Pamela asked where Kay was, they told her he was restrained upstairs. The couple said the intruders were almost polite. Roger had a back injury and they checked that he was comfortable as they restrained him. But they were threatening as well. They rummaged through the couple's pockets, confiscating their cell phones and IDs.
At one point, one of the men said that because Roger and Pamela had seen their faces, they would have to kill them. Pamela felt panicked until she noticed a picture of Jesus Christ that Kay had hanging on the wall. Being a woman of faith, the picture gave her comfort. She began praying silently to God, repeating the words, "If you're there, save me." Soon, the two men headed outside, leaving the couple alone in the living room.
There was a large window in the room that looked out over the east side of the property. Pamela gazed out the window and saw a figure standing outside in the dimming light, holding what looked like a broom. The figure noticed Pam looking and gestured for her to look away. She did so and told Roger he should also keep his head down. The couple said they were left alone in the room for between 30 and 45 minutes.
At one point, Roger started to pray aloud. Like his father, he was a member of the LDS church. Eventually, the two men returned. Pamela nudged Roger, indicating he should be quiet due to the men's presence. Roger stopped, but the men told him to continue.
Then, they folded their arms across their chests and bowed their heads, which was the traditional praying stance in the LDS faith, while listening in silence. When Roger finished his prayer, one of the men pulled up a barstool and sat down in front of the couple. He began peppering them with questions, asking if they knew of any visitors Kay might be expecting. They told him Kay's wife Darla would be coming home soon.
The man looked unfazed and unsurprised to hear this. Then he asked if Roger and Pamela had any children and whether anyone was waiting for them to return home. These questions made Roger and Pamela nervous. It sounded like their lives were hanging in the balance depending on how they answered. But something had shifted in the man's demeanor after hearing Roger pray. He said they had decided to let the couple go.
He told them they should tell the police that three black men were responsible for the crime and kept Roger's driver's license so he had his home address. If Roger told the police the truth, the man warned, quote, "We will hurt your family." Roger and Pamela told the sheriff's deputies about this script they had been told to follow and said that was why their 911 call had been odd.
They weren't sure whether to tell the truth or their attacker's story. After the two men fled the property in the blue hatchback, Roger and Pamela had waited about 45 minutes before removing their bindings. They said they were scared that the men might come back. Pamela said she had first wriggled out of the zip tires on her wrist, then reached into Roger's pocket for his keys because he kept a pocket knife on his keychain.
She then used the knife to cut off Roger's ties and the ones around their ankles. Once they were freed, Pamela picked up a nearby phone to call 911 while Roger checked on his father. First, he looked out a window by the front door to make sure the intruder's car was gone. Then he locked the door and jammed a stick in another sliding glass door to prevent anyone from entering. After this, he finally headed upstairs.
Pamela was speaking to the 911 operator when Roger found his father's body in a small bathroom. Kay was kneeling over the bathtub which had a sliding glass door. As well as a deep slash to Kay's throat, he had been stabbed in the back of the neck. The murder weapon, a sharp kitchen knife with a long blood-stained blade, was lying in the bathtub. The knife had been taken from Kay's own kitchen.
Roger went back downstairs to tell Pamela that Kay was dead, and she passed this on to 911 before handing the phone to Roger. Responding officers noted that there was surprisingly little damage for a home invasion. Someone had gone to a great effort to keep the crime scene tidy, even killing Kay over the bathtub to avoid spilling blood on the floor. Forensic investigators couldn't recover any useful DNA or fingerprints from the house.
They believed this indicated the perpetrators either had lots of time to clean up or there hadn't been much of a struggle at all. Roger had told 911 that the intruders must have targeted his father because he was rich. This was backed up by something one of the men had supposedly told the couple, stating that they were robbing Kay to support their families. But Kay's valuables had been left behind, mostly.
Kay Mortenson loved guns and spent a lot of money adding to his firearm collection. In total, he owned about 100, some of which were extremely valuable. Kay's firearms were scattered throughout the house, but he kept about 20 in an outdoor underground concrete bunker that he'd built himself. Kay was a survivalist who believed in self-protection and had built the bunker in case of an emergency.
It was stocked with everything he and his wife Darla could ever need to survive: food, water, weapons, first aid supplies, and even reading materials. Only his closest friends and family knew about the bunker. Investigators soon discovered that the shelves in the bunker were empty. All of the firearms he had stored down there were missing. It didn't take long for investigators to grow suspicious.
Something about Roger and Pamela's story wasn't adding up for them. First of all, the crime scene didn't add up. Roger and Pamela had said the men were strangers, but there was no sign of forced entry. Drawers and safes throughout the house were left untouched. It didn't look like the place had been ransacked, as would be expected if random burglars were responsible. Nor did it look like any of the victims had put up a struggle.
It also seemed as though the men had somehow known about Kay's secret bunker. The only firearms stolen were the ones kept in there, even though Kay's most valuable, exclusive and antique guns were in his bedroom, locked away in two separate safes. The safes also held Kay's gold and silver coin collections.
As a survivalist who was mistrustful of the government, Kay had invested in these coins to ensure his wealth would remain during periods of potential disaster or economic downturn. When a locksmith managed to open the safes up for law enforcement, they saw that none of the coins, or Kay's valuable guns, had been stolen.
Investigators thought the entire situation looked more like someone staging a burglary without wanting to actually lose any items of value. Other aspects of the scene also seemed strange. Pamela had said she'd seen one of the men standing outside the living room window holding a broom, but a fresh area of snow showed no signs of footprints or someone having swept in the vicinity.
There was evidence of a snowy patch having been swept on the north side of the house. However, Pamela wouldn't have been able to see this area if she'd been held hostage in the living room as she claimed. Although Pamela had said she'd cut off the majority of the couple's zip tires, the discarded tires were intact and hadn't been cut.
Pamela claimed to have stretched the ones on her wrists to remove them. But when investigators experimented with the ties, they found the plastic was too hard to stretch. Nor were there any marks on the couple's wrists which would have been left by tight zip ties. Investigators suspected Pamela and Roger had secured the restraints loosely to make it look as though they were taken hostage without actually being tied up.
The fact that Kay Mortensen had been murdered with a knife seemed vicious and personal, not what you'd expect to see if he'd been killed by two strangers who were carrying a handgun. As well as being a survivalist who was armed and on high alert to defend himself, Kay had a black belt in karate. He should have been able to fight back against intruders who turned up at his home.
It seemed far more likely that he'd been targeted by people he knew and trusted when his guard was down. Finally, investigators were struck by what they perceived as Roger and Pamela's strange demeanours. Both appeared calm and not in the least bit grief-stricken despite the grisly scene at Kay's home or their own supposed ordeal.
The details of their story seemed to change and there were elements that were just plain odd. Like Roger saying he'd asked the intruders if they could take their pecan pie and leave. Why would he be thinking about the pecan pie in such a stressful situation? The sheriff's deputies realised they needed to separate Roger and Pamela Mortenson, then interview them individually. They placed the couple in two different deputies' cars in order to drive them down to the station.
One deputy noticed Roger making eye contact with Pamela through their car windows. He was grinning at his wife and gave her a thumbs up. When he realized the deputy was watching him, his smile immediately vanished and he put his hands in his lap. Pamela still seemed calm and was chatty with the deputies who escorted her to the station. She talked about her work and several television programs she was missing due to the evening's events.
During her interrogation, detectives noted a complete absence of emotion when she discussed her deceased father-in-law. They showed Pamela a photo line-up of possible suspects, but she didn't recognise any. One detective cut to the chase, stating, "This story is a bunch of crap that you and Roger have come up with, okay? Is your husband capable of killing somebody?" Pamela stammered slightly in her reply, saying,
I wouldn't hope, I mean, I wouldn't think he is. I wouldn't think that he's capable of killing his father. I know we are in a lot of debt, but we, I personally, would not have my father-in-law killed for his money." While Roger was being driven to the sheriff's department, he seemed relaxed and eager to chat. He asked lots of questions about the equipment in the deputy's car and was keen to know how it all worked.
While waiting to be taken into an interview room, he continued to talk, telling deputies about his job and other random topics. A couple of times he referred to his father's death, but he didn't seem upset and never cried. At one point he described his father as, quote, "a cantankerous old fart". Sometimes he stood up to stretch, explaining that he had an uncomfortable back injury.
Roger was quick to suggest possible suspects, including a former student of his father's named Mike who owed Kay money. Kay had taken some of Mike's guns as collateral and was storing them in the bunker. Now they were all gone. Detectives quickly tracked Mike down and established that he had an airtight alibi for the evening. Mike also explained that Kay had bought the guns from him because he needed money.
Some of the details in Roger's story changed during his interview. He said the suspects had been wearing fuzzy, blue women's gloves. Then he later said they hadn't been wearing gloves at all. But for the most part, his version of events stayed the same. Roger again told the story of how the men had changed their minds about killing them after hearing him pray. This struck investigators as particularly implausible.
It seemed absurd that the men would viciously kill Kay Mortensen in cold blood, then allow two witnesses to live. They told Roger Mortensen as such and said they didn't believe what he and Pamela were saying. Roger replied, "I'm sorry you don't believe me, but…" Then he trailed off. He shrugged and rested his head in one hand before looking at one of the detectives and asking,
Does it sound too rehearsed or… The detective told him it did. Okay, was all Roger said in reply.
Looking into Kay Mortensen's life, investigators quickly realized he'd been a complex individual. Kay had enjoyed a long career as a professor at Brigham Young University, an LDS tertiary institution. He taught the subjects of engineering technology, manufacturing technology, and manufacturing design, and was popular with his students. They liked the way he told stories to capture their interest instead of just lecturing at them.
In addition to his successful career, Kay had made a number of financial investments over the years that had made him a multi-millionaire. He was known to be generous with his wealth, sharing it with those he loved. A few people owed him money from substantial loans he'd given them, but those who knew Kay said he hadn't been worried or pressured anyone to repay him. At the same time, Kay could rub some people the wrong way.
He was described as opinionated, dogmatic, stubborn, and quick-tempered. Sometimes he got into arguments about politics or religion, and there was a number of failed relationships in his past. Kay had been married and divorced twice before meeting Darla. He'd had a falling out with his sister regarding guardianship for their mother and disabled brother.
and Kay had disowned one of his sons who held a long-standing grudge due to Kay not paying his child support or funding his college education. Detectives also learnt about a disagreement Kay had with a former business partner and a particularly troubling dispute with a neighbour.
Three and a half years earlier in May 2006, Kay's neighbour Cindy let her pet Great Dane out of its kennel just as Kay was driving past the property. According to Cindy, the dog had started barking at Kay. In response, Kay had stopped his car and shot the dog dead. Kay claimed that the Great Dane had attacked him and he only shot it in self-defence.
He was subsequently charged with animal cruelty and discharging a firearm from a vehicle. He pleaded not guilty to both charges and eventually beat the case. Despite these disputes throughout Kay's past, investigators quickly concluded that they'd had nothing to do with his murder. In addition to questioning his son Roger and daughter-in-law Pamela, detectives made interviewing Kay's wife Darla a top priority.
On the evening of Monday November 16, Darla Mortenson was driving home to the Payson Canyon property when she received a call from a neighbor. He'd noticed a commotion at the Mortenson residence, with the sheriff's deputies descending on the property. Darla's first thought was that her husband, Kay, must have shot a would-be burglar. He had always told her that if anyone tried to break into his property, he would kill them. Darla knew just how prepared he was for any kind of attack.
Scared and panicked, she called a friend and asked them to meet her at the property. When Darla and her friend arrived at Payson Canyon, they found that law enforcement had blocked off the street. Darla made her way to the nearest officer and explained the situation. She was taken to a command post that had been set up at the bottom of the hill that led to her home. Darla was informed that her husband hadn't killed an intruder as she'd expected.
Instead, he was the victim of an attack. Dala looked grief-stricken. Detectives noted that her open distress was markedly different to how Kay's son Roger had appeared. According to those who knew Kay and Dala, their love had been deep, and Dala had a calming effect on her husband. Prior to getting married, she had agreed to sign a prenuptial agreement so Kay could protect his financial assets.
Darla told detectives that Kay had always been paranoid when it came to his personal safety. He carried a gun with him at all times and would insist they enter their homes via the garage instead of the front door. The fact that he could have been caught off guard by intruders struck her as very unlikely. After listening to audio of Roger and Pamela Mortenson's police interviews, Darla told the detectives that she was concerned they might be involved.
Investigators spoke to other members of the Mortenson family. Some mentioned that during Roger's childhood he might have experienced physical and emotional abuse at Kay's hands. It turned out that Roger also had a criminal record. During his adult years, he had struggled with substance abuse, becoming addicted to cannabis and cocaine. It also sounded like he had a temper.
Thirteen years earlier, in 1996, a driver was taking some Boy Scouts on an excursion through American Fork Canyon when Roger Mortenson passed by them in an all-terrain vehicle. For some reason, he became very agitated, stopped his ATV, and pulled out a handgun. He began waving it at the other driver, who quickly continued on to escape him.
They reported the incident to authorities, who tracked Roger down and found both the gun and a cannabis pipe in his possession. He also had a radar unit that had been stolen from Utah Highway Patrol, valued at $4,000. Roger was charged with aggravated assault, drug possession, and receiving stolen property. He pleaded no contest and his charges were reduced, resulting in him receiving probation.
The following year, Roger helped a friend steal dozens of tools from a hardware store. Roger had also been married three times prior to meeting Pamela. In 1999, Roger and his then-wife sought protective orders against each other. According to Roger's wife, he had started claiming he could see the devil.
She also said that he abused cannabis and alcohol frequently and was physically violent, throwing her against a wall and slapping her. Roger said in his own protective order application that she was lying about these assaults. The orders were granted, but Roger was later convicted of violating it when he made harassing phone calls to his wife. A judge ordered Roger to attend anger management classes and the couple ultimately divorced.
Roger's father, Kay, had been there during his son's struggles. He would bail him out when he needed it and helped Roger stop using drugs. The pair bonded over their love of firearms and would trade guns together. Roger said that he and his dad had been best friends. Quote, "...as best friends as you can be with a grumpy old man."
Shortly after Kay's murder, detectives learned that Roger had gone to a bank where Kay had kept a security box that contained more than $800,000 worth of gold and silver. Roger had tried to access the security box but wasn't allowed. The case investigators couldn't understand why Roger would do such a thing so soon after his father's murder, especially as he had siblings who were also entitled to Kay's estate.
Roger's interest in his father's wealth looked like a clear motive to the police. Kay had put most of his money into a trust for his children to receive one day, and Roger was set to inherit a fortune in the event of his father's death. They froze and seized Kay's assets. Investigators searched Roger and Pamela's home.
Scattered throughout the house, detectives noticed a number of letters that turned out to be collection notices and unsent mortgage repayment forms. It seemed the couple owed thousands of dollars and were in financial trouble. This was consistent with Pamela's remark about being in debt during her police interview. Detectives noticed some sawdust on the floor beneath a heating furnace with a wood panel. It looked as though someone had recently been meddling with the panel.
They removed it and found a 12-gauge shotgun and an AK-47 stashed behind the furnace, along with several thousand rounds of ammunition. Roger Mortenson wasn't permitted to own guns due to his previous convictions. Believing these could be the firearms that had been stolen from Kay Mortenson's bunker, the detectives took them in for examination. In the garage, detectives found a safe with a .22 caliber revolver inside.
There were also two round plastic containers in the garage that were filled with cannabis. Possessing cannabis for any purpose was illegal in Utah at the time, and Roger's criminal record meant he was committing a felony. Roger Mortenson's green Jeep was also taken for processing. Detectives took Roger back to his father's house and asked him to take them through the events of the attack.
They noted that during the walkthrough, Roger seemed very keen to go upstairs and check everything was still there. As the bathroom hadn't been cleaned and was still stained with Kay's blood, investigators found this odd. It didn't seem right that Kay's son would want to go near the spot where his father had been murdered. Roger repeatedly referred to the two perpetrators as "gentlemen", which also seemed strange.
The decision was made to give Roger and Pamela polygraph tests. Although the results from these tests wouldn't be permissible in a court of law, detectives wanted to measure the couple's responses to being asked directly if they had killed Kay. The polygraph examiner suspected Pamela was using countermeasures, like breathing differently, to beat the test. Ultimately, her results were inconclusive.
When Roger was tested, he became extremely animated and suddenly turned to the examiner saying, "I know how my father was murdered." Then he got down on his hands and knees to pose in the position his father had been in before making the motion of a knife across his throat. Not only was his reenactment descriptive and disturbing, it matched the autopsy findings to a T. Roger's results indicated he had failed his polygraph test.
Detectives believed he was being deceptive when he said he'd nothing to do with his father's murder. It was clear to them that Roger and Pamela had a financial motive and both had been behaving suspiciously from the beginning. Detectives weren't the only ones who suspected Roger and Pamela. Kay Mortenson's wife, Darla, had voiced her concerns.
Kay's sister, Fern, didn't think Roger was personally capable of killing his father, but she did believe he might know people who would be willing to do it for him. Two months after the murder, in January 2010, the Utah County Sheriff's Office went public and openly named the couple as persons of interest in the case. They also shared the audio from Pamela's 911 call with the media.
A spokesperson from the sheriff's department explained that the couple had provided inconsistent information and also refused to help create a suspect sketch of the men they claimed were responsible. In the face of the media spotlight, Roger and Pamela continued to assert their innocence. And despite all the suspicion against them, there was no physical evidence tying them to the crime.
The guns recovered from their home hadn't been the same ones stolen from Kay's bunker. The case stalled for another six months. Then in July 2010, the Utah County prosecutor decided to convene a grand jury. This would allow them to share the evidence they did have with some witnesses, who would then decide whether there was enough to go to trial. The grand jury was kept secret from the public and the media.
16 jurors were presented with evidence from detectives, prosecutors, members of the Mortenson family, and some of Pamela's colleagues. Roger and Pamela weren't informed of the proceedings and no defense case was presented. On Thursday July 29 2010, the grand jury left to deliberate. It took them just over an hour to come to a conclusion.
They voted in favor of the couple being indicted for Kay Mortensen's murder. One week later, on the evening of Thursday August 5, Roger and Pamela Mortensen learnt of the indictment when police arrived at their home. Both were arrested and charged with murder and obstruction of justice. They were transferred to the Utah County Jail, where they would remain until it was time for their trial.
Casefile will be back shortly. Thank you for supporting us by listening to this episode's sponsors. Thank you for listening to this episode's ads. By supporting our sponsors, you support Casefile to continue to deliver quality content. Rachel Bingham was growing increasingly concerned about reports she was seeing on the news.
As a resident of Vernal, Utah, Rachel lived about a three-hour drive from Kay Mortensen's residence. But the story of the professor's murder was still major local news. For months, Rachel, who was in her early 20s, had been keeping an awful secret. And now she was seeing the consequences of not telling anyone what she knew. Rachel had married when she was just 18 years old.
Her husband, Martin Bond, had initially pursued a career in the military before he was discharged and enrolled at Utah State University. The young couple had a son together, but their marriage didn't work out. By early 2010, Rachel Bingham and Martin Bond were divorced. However, they remained good friends.
In March 2010, not long after their divorce was finalized, the now 23-year-old Bond confided something in his ex-wife. Martin Bond had known murder victim Kay Mortensen as his father was one of Kay's longtime friends. The two men had trained together in an emergency response program, developing a close friendship. As a child, Bond had even visited Kay's home in Payson.
Bond told Rachel that five months earlier, on Monday November 16 2009, he and his childhood friend Benjamin Reddick had driven to Kay's Payson residence. They went armed with zip ties and latex gloves and the intention to steal Kay's guns. Martin Bond needed money and because he knew Kay Mortenson, he was aware that the elderly man had a valuable gun collection.
Martin Bond knocked on Kay's front door as Benjamin Reddick stood behind him. When Kay opened the door, he immediately recognized Bond and invited both men inside. Once they were indoors, Reddick and Bond pulled a .40 caliber handgun on Kay and demanded he restrain himself with the zip ties. Kay was reluctant but didn't struggle and ultimately did as they asked.
The pair then demanded Kay take them to where he kept his guns. Kay retrieved the key that led to his underground bunker and opened it up at gunpoint. Kay indicated where the firearms were located on the bunker's shelves, and the men then took Kay back inside the house. Familiar with the home's layout, Martin Bond forced Kay up the stairs and into a first floor bathroom. He slid open the glass door on the bathtub before making Kay kneel over it.
Bond zip-tied Kay's feet together to prevent him from kicking out in self-defense. He told his ex-wife Rachel that while he stood watch over Kay, Benjamin Reddick used a butcher knife taken from Kay's kitchen to slash Kay's throat. Reddick then stabbed Kay deep in the back of his neck before dropping the knife in the tub. Almost immediately after Kay was murdered, the doorbell rang.
Benjamin Reddick hid behind the front door holding the handgun, while Martin Bond opened the door. Roger and Pamela Mortensen were standing there with a pecan pie. After Bond let them inside, Reddick emerged with the gun and ordered the couple into the living room. They took the couple hostage, restraining them with zip ties as they'd done to Kaye.
While Roger and Pamela were left alone and terrified for up to 45 minutes, Reddick kept a watch over the couple. Meanwhile, Bond emptied the bunker of its 25 guns and ammunition, loading them into his blue hatchback that was parked in Kay's driveway. Martin Bond didn't tell his ex-wife Rachel why he and Reddick had allowed the couple to live, but he did tell her how they'd come up with a story that Roger and Pamela should tell the police.
that three black men were responsible for the crime. If they didn't tell this story, Bond and Reddick said they would kill them and their families. Bond told Rachel that he and Reddick had buried the guns somewhere in the desert near Vernal where they lived, but now he wanted to move them. He was nervous that Reddick might go to the police to confess and he didn't want any evidence of their crime to be found. Bond asked Rachel if she would help,
Reluctantly, Rachel agreed. She hired a U-Haul on the morning of Wednesday March 31 2010, a little over four months after Kay's murder. She then headed out to the desert with Bond and their young son. Bond retrieved Kay's guns and put them in the U-Haul, then they drove to a nearby park. It was a spacious park with wooded areas, numerous walking trails, and a giant cliff face 100 feet high.
Rachel watched the couple's son and made a fire while Bond found a spot to rebury the guns. He chose a secluded, wooded area. Rachel also took some snapshots of the cliff face that day, as well as a few of Bond standing next to the rented U-Haul. For months, Rachel Bingham kept her ex-husband's secret. She saw some news stories about Kay's son and daughter-in-law being suspected of the crime, though nothing about them being arrested.
Rachel tried blocking out the terrible things Bond had told her, but by late 2010, she couldn't keep what she knew to herself anymore. She confided in a friend, who in turn told her that Roger and Pamela Mortenson had since been charged with the crime. Rachel checked the news and saw that this was true.
Horrified at the thought that two innocent people might serve life sentences for a murder her ex-husband had committed, Rachel decided to tell the truth. On Sunday December 5 2010, four months since Roger and Pamela Mortenson had been sent to county jail, Rachel Bingham called the police. During an in-person interview that was recorded, Rachel told detectives everything that Martin Bond had told her.
She cried as she said how the prospect of the Mortensons going to prison had prompted her to come forward. Rachel's story matched numerous details from the Mortenson's statements that had not been public and seemed to verify their claims. Martin Bond and Benjamin Reddick were almost exactly as Roger and Pamela had described. They were white and in their early 20s, with short dark hair and some facial hair.
Both were of average height at 5 foot 10 and weighed 165 pounds. Rachel also told the police that Bond hadn't buried all of Kay's guns. She had seen some of them still lying around his house. Investigators obtained a warrant to search Martin Bond's home. Bond told them he had nothing to do with the crime but couldn't stop them from executing the search warrant.
While going through his home and a nearby shed, detectives found between five to seven guns that matched one stolen from Kay Mortenson. Most of them had the serial numbers scratched off, with the exception of one rifle. When investigators checked its serial number, they confirmed that the rifle had belonged to Kay Mortenson. Presented with this evidence, Martin Bond changed his story.
He admitted that he had been involved and told the detectives the same story he had told Rachel. He then took them to the location where he'd buried the remaining guns. It was a wooded area about 10 feet from a parking lot within the large park Rachel Bingham had described. Detectives recovered more firearms from this buried weapons cache. Bond was adamant that he hadn't been the one to actually kill Kay.
He had stood over Kay with a gun while Benjamin Reddick repeatedly slashed his throat and stabbed him. It appeared that Kay had deliberately taken his attackers to the bunker because that was where his least expensive weapons were kept. He hadn't told them about the more valuable ones he kept upstairs in a safe. Bond and Reddick had seemingly taken Kay at face value, not thinking to search elsewhere in the property for other things to steal.
When Benjamin Reddick's home was searched, police found Roger Mortenson's driver's license in his possession. The couple had told police how the attackers had stolen Roger's license so they'd have access to his address. Two days after Rachel first went to the police, detectives arrested both men for aggravated murder, aggravated burglary, and three counts of aggravated kidnapping. They were booked into the Utah County Jail.
It was the same place where Roger and Pamela Mortensen had spent the past four months awaiting their trial. When Roger's attorney informed him of the new development in the case, Roger began crying. The day after Bond and Reddick were arrested, prosecutors moved to drop all charges against Roger and Pamela. The couple appeared happy and smiling as the indictment was officially dismissed in court.
They declined to speak to the media, but Roger's attorney spoke on his behalf, stating: "He and I are both just elated and ecstatic about this new development. I would suspect that a few things in life are as liberating as being proven innocent on something that everybody believes you did, especially something like murder. They've maintained the story the entire time, and it's all been true.
Pamela Mortensen's lawyer said, "I think there is some relief from Pam. I think that she always felt that the truth would come out. Every day that she sat in jail is a day of her life that was wasted, and that she can never get back." Members of the couple's family openly expressed their relief at the news.
Kay's widow Dala told reporters that she was shocked by the development, but incredibly relieved to know her stepson had nothing to do with his father's murder. When police had first floated the idea that they could be responsible, Dala couldn't believe it. But then the investigators played recordings of their interviews for her. The couple's unusual demeanours led to Dala starting to suspect that they might have been involved.
The relief that Roger and Pamela's relatives felt wasn't enough to undo some of the damage that had been done over the past year. The fact that some of their friends and people within Roger's family had believed they were guilty had created significant tension and tested relationships. When the couple were first charged, Pamela's family hired an attorney for her, but Roger's relatives were less enthusiastic about funding his defence.
According to the television program Dateline, when a friend of the couple asked Roger's sister Julie if they could use money from Kay's multi-million dollar estate to retain a lawyer for Roger, she refused. Julie told Dateline this was because the family's attorney had advised against giving Roger money. Roger had to use a public defender instead.
Kay's sister Fern had previously believed it might have been possible that Roger hired people to kill her brother. Although she was happy to be proven wrong, she was left with regret for not believing her nephew, and the experience changed her outlook on life. Family members and investigators alike had partly been suspicious of Roger and Pamela because some of their behaviour immediately following the attack was seen as odd.
When Pamela called 911 after escaping from her zip ties, she came across as vague and unwilling to help the operator by providing information. This was because she wasn't sure if she should tell the truth of what happened or the fake story that the attackers had ordered them to tell. Detectives had been suspicious of how calm Pamela seemed in the aftermath of the attack, but she said that was her natural personality.
She wasn't the type to become visibly emotional. Pamela also believed she had likely been in shock at the time. During Roger's interviews with detectives, he had said and done some things that they thought were strange. This included asking them if they thought his and Pamela's statements sounded, quote, "too rehearsed". But there was a reason for this. Years earlier, Roger had accidentally driven his ATV off a cliff.
He'd suffered a serious brain injury and almost died. Although he recovered, the injury caused significant trauma to his frontal lobe and Roger was no longer able to work. He relied on disability payments instead. After the accident, elements of Roger's personality changed. He struggled with his short-term memory and stress caused him to become forgetful.
He could also be impulsive or act as though he had no emotion or filter. These are common consequences of a frontal lobe injury. The grand jury that had voted to indict Roger and Pamela had not been told about Roger's injury. Investigators had told the grand jury that the couple hadn't provided clear and consistent descriptions of the men who attacked them. But a review of their statements proved this was false.
The couple's level of debt had also been exaggerated. Detectives had given evidence that they found several stacks of collection notices around their home, which were about 8 or 9 inches high. In fact, the couple only had 3 or 4 collection notices at the time, amounting to between $3 and $8,000. These included medical and dental bills. The couple hadn't been behind on their mortgage payments.
The reason there were unsent mortgage repayment forms lying around their house was because they had recently switched to making payments online. Investigators had told Roger and Pamela that their descriptions of the attack sounded too similar and rehearsed. Yet, they also pointed to discrepancies in their stories as indicators of guilt. These discrepancies were minor, such as the couple describing the men's gloves as different colours.
Mistakes in recollecting details such as this aren't uncommon after suffering a traumatic experience. The couple were accused of having refused to help create a sketch of the suspects. In fact, they had been at the sheriff's department with their attorney to provide fingerprints and DNA samples when investigators unexpectedly brought out a sketch artist. Because their attorney had another appointment in court, they were unable to stay and work with the sketch artist at that time.
The attorney asked if they could complete the sketch another time, but the police never followed up. It also emerged that early in the investigation, detectives had been contacted by a woman who said she had witnessed the murder in a dream. The woman had been using methamphetamine at the time and had a very vivid dream in which she saw her boyfriend murder Kay Mortenson in his bathroom.
A second woman was present on a nearby staircase and was crying during the murder. She was accompanied by a man. Detectives wondered if the man and woman watching on during the murder could have been Roger and Pamela. They showed the woman a photo line-up of suspects, with Roger's picture included. They asked her to identify the killer, and she pointed directly at Roger,
Despite the fact that this woman was reporting a dream she'd had while under the influence of recreational drugs, detectives had treated this as a serious tip-off. It had further bolstered their early suspicions that Roger and Pamela Mortensen were somehow involved. After Martin Bond and Benjamin Reddick were charged with Kay's murder, Reddick's attorney soon helped him negotiate a plea agreement with prosecutors.
The agreement would see Reddick plead guilty to aggravated murder and just one count of aggravated kidnapping. In exchange, the prosecutors would drop the other charges and wouldn't seek the death penalty in his case. They would even recommend the possibility of parole one day when it came to sentencing. Part of Reddick's plea agreement required him to make a full and honest confession and testify against Bond when it came time for his trial.
The plan to rob Kay Mortenson hadn't been a long time in the making. Reddick said that he'd first heard of Bond's idea when Bond called him on the day of the crime. Reddick had gone over to Bond's home and things escalated from there. Reddick's version of events differed somewhat from Bond's. While Bond said his friend was responsible for killing Kay, Reddick said it was the other way around.
After zip-tying Kay's ankles in the bathroom, Bond had gone downstairs to the kitchen and returned with a butcher knife. Reddick had been the one holding the handgun the entire time. He'd been standing in the bathroom with the gun while Bond repeatedly sliced Kay's throat, then stabbed him. According to Reddick, Bond had also wanted to kill Roger and Pamela. After the couple were first restrained, Bond had gone back to the kitchen and found a second knife.
But this time, Reddick intervened, stepping between Bond and the couple and telling Bond not to kill them. As Martin Bond was pleading not guilty and going to trial, Reddick's version of events would be heard in court when he testified against his longtime friend. Benjamin Reddick officially pleaded guilty in June 2011.
He was sentenced to 25 years to life in prison and ordered to pay two fines of $10,000 each. The judge also ordered Reddick to pay restitution amounting to $10,500. In a brief statement to the court, Reddick apologized multiple times for his role in Kay's murder. Martin Bond's trial began years later in January 2013.
His ex-wife, Rachel Bingham, was a star witness and cried as she testified from the witness box. Benjamin Reddick was set to be another key witness. He was brought into the courtroom wearing a white prison jumpsuit. Reddick was asked about his childhood and his friendship with Martin Bond. He answered these questions openly. Then he was asked about the events of Monday, November 16, 2009.
Reddick said he'd been at the restaurant where he worked when he received a call from Bond asking him to come over. When the prosecutor asked what happened next, Reddick paused, then replied, "'I know it was in the agreement too, and everyone expects me to, but I would feel more comfortable stopping right now.'" The prosecutor tried asking more questions, but Reddick refused to answer them, quietly telling the court he was refusing to testify.
The prosecution and Kay Mortensen's family were deeply disappointed by Reddick's refusal, especially as it had been negotiated as part of his plea deal. Bond's defense were claiming the entire attack had been Reddick's idea. They said Bond had reluctantly agreed to rob Kay's property, but only if Kay wasn't home. Bond considered Kay a close friend and didn't want to harm him.
If the pair arrived at Kay's residence and found he was there, Bond insisted that they would just say hello and leave. He said that somehow the entire thing had just gotten out of hand. According to Bond and his attorney, Reddick was also solely responsible for Kay's murder. Reddick going back on his deal with prosecutors wouldn't impact his conviction, but it would be passed along to the parole board to review when he is able to apply for parole.
Since they were arrested, Bond and Reddick had each accused the other of killing Kay. The prosecution had been relying on Reddick to prove their case against Bond, but they did have another witness willing to testify that Bond was the killer. In 2011, Martin Bond had been caught passing notes with another inmate at the Utah County Jail. The other inmate was a 21-year-old awaiting trial for robbing a credit union.
The two would communicate by typing handwritten notes to a shoestring and tossing it between their cells. One night, the 21-year-old inmate asked Bond why he was placing all the blame for Kay's murder on his childhood friend. In response, Bond wrote: "Well, Ben made the situation. When Kay and I tried to talk to him, he freaked out more and a bunch of other shit happened.
It came to the point where Ben was going to kill him, but he made me instead. It was that or he said he'll shoot me so that no one could say anything. That's why Kay's throat was cut. Ben wouldn't give me the gun. I thought he was suffering, so that's why I stabbed him." The younger inmate came forward with the notes in exchange for a better plea deal in his own case.
A handwriting expert from the Salt Lake County Police Department said that the note was written in neat cursive and was a match to Bond's handwriting. A former friend of Martin Bond's said that over the years, Bond had occasionally discussed how he would murder a person if he ever had to. He would talk about slicing throats, the friend said. That's how he would do it. Slicing throats.
The Utah County attorney also argued that Bond was the one with a motive to kill Kay, not Reddick. Kay knew who Bond was but had never seen Reddick before. It made sense that Bond would want to cover his tracks by murdering a victim who could identify him. Roger and Pamela Mortenson testified at length about their ordeal at the hands of Bond and Reddick.
Now that they knew the names of their attackers, they could provide more information about how each man had behaved. Pamela said it was Bond who did most of the talking and seemed to be in charge. Reddick had been quieter and was the one who had told the couple Kay was restrained upstairs. Pamela told the court how terrified she had been. Quote, "'It was a very scary situation. I didn't know if I was going to make it out of that house that night.'
Three days after the trial began, the jury left to deliberate. It took them five hours to find Martin Bond guilty of aggravated murder, burglary and robbery, and three counts of aggravated kidnapping. He was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. Roger and Pamela spoke openly about the devastating consequences the crime had on them.
They had lost a loved one in terrible circumstances and were also victims of kidnapping. Being taken hostage and believing they would be murdered had been a traumatic experience. Then they were arrested and charged with the very crime they were victims of, losing months of their lives in the process. Addressing Martin Bond directly during his sentencing, Roger stated, "'Because of your actions, my wife and I were blamed for a crime we did not commit.'
"We spent four and a half months in jail. Our relationships with family and friends were destroyed. My wife lost her job. Our vehicles were repossessed. Our reputations were ruined in our church and in our community, while you watched it happen and bragged about it." Roger and Pamela filed a civil lawsuit against those responsible for their arrest, arguing that the prosecutors and detectives had lied to the grand jury.
But a few months after their suit was filed, the US Supreme Court ruled that grand jury prosecutors and witnesses were immune from civil litigation. Consequently, the couple's lawsuit was dismissed. They had no further recourse for restitution or compensation. Deputy Utah County Attorney Tim Taylor has said that although investigators made a mistake in arresting the couple, it was their arrests that led to the truth coming out.
Taylor told the Salt Lake Tribune that he and other members of the prosecution team, quote, "felt bad about Pamela and Roger Mortenson's arrests, but in the long run, things turned out okay." In the words of Kay Mortenson's sister Fern, his murder and the events that followed permanently damaged Kay's loved ones. In court, she stated, "Our family was left with a gaping hole.
"Irreparable damage was done and will never be repaired." At the time of Kay's murder, he was just getting started on enjoying his retirement. He had only recently married his wife Dala, whom he was deeply devoted to. Dala described their relationship as being like that of teenagers newly in love. It had been a while since either of them had been in a loving relationship, and they were thrilled to have found each other.
Kay and Dala were wealthy and happy and excited to spend the rest of their lives having fun together. The pair had completed a church mission, gone on a cruise to Hawaii, enrolled in dance classes, and had lots of other plans for their golden years. All of that abruptly ended when Martin Bond and Benjamin Reddick decided to rob Kay.
In Dala's words, she had been left all alone by their actions, and the lives of K's son and daughter-in-law were shattered, all for a few guns.