Utah shooting victim identified as Valley woman missing for 20 years

A body found twenty years ago in a remote part of Utah has now been identified as that of a missing woman from the Youngstown area.

21 News has new information on why it took so long to identify the body of Lina Reyes Gedes who detectives say was murdered.

It was in 1998 when the body of an unidentified woman was found near Ticaboo, Utah.  She had been shot in the head.

According to Utah authorities, the victim was found by a passerby on the side of SR-276, approximately 38 miles north of Lake Powell, Utah.

Her body was covered with plastic bags, wrapped in duct tape, tied with a rope and placed inside a sleeping bag before being wrapped in carpet.

The chief investigator says her fingertips had purposely been cut off so that it would be difficult to identify her.

But fast forward 20 years.  Two cold case detectives on opposite sides of the country, one in Utah, the other in Youngstown, one working a cold case murder, the other working a missing cold case, both posted photos of a woman during the same week.  

An internet sleuth from California with no connection to the case, but who had an interest in unsolved crimes, noticed the mole in the right ear and told Utah authorities to contact Youngstown police about their missing case involving Lina Reyes Geddes.

Reyes Geddes was last seen on April 8th of 1998 in Austintown where she lived with her husband.  But according to the police report filed in Youngstown (because of a language barrier), she wasn't reported missing until September by her husband and a family member who came here from Mexico.  Reyes Geddes was supposed to board a plane for Dallas, Texas and then Laredo and ultimately travel to Mexico to stay with family.

The Utah State Bureau of Investigation is giving a lot of credit to Youngstown Police Detective-Sergeant Dave Sweeney, saying Sweeney after hearing from Utah put out a media release on October 18th to the Mexican Consulate and others asking for any help family members related to Reyes Geddes.

Detective-Sergeant Sweeney tells 21 News he worked with retired Youngstown Police Detectives Jose Morales and Austintown Police Detective Bob Shaffer on the case.

By October 27th YPD received a phone message from a sister from Mexico that needed a language interpreter.  An ATF Agent from Utah stepped in to help.

Over the next couple of weeks, Utah's State Bureau of Investigation had to work with several agencies to facilitate how to get DNA swabs done in the U.S. since there were relatives in Mexico.

DPS Agent Brian Davis of the Utah State Bureau of Investigation says, "Ultimately two family members were able to travel from their home in Mexico to the U.S. Consulate in Monterrey, Mexico to give DNA samples.  And on November 9th these two family members arrived.  It was a sister and a niece that arrived at the U.S. Consulate.  They provided DNA swabs there at the U.S. Embassy, and then those swabs were sent to the Utah Bureau of Investigation."

Fortunately, the process did not take long to give investigators just the answer they were looking for.

"We compared the victim's DNA here in Utah with the two family members in Mexico and the results came back and confirmed the identity that was, in fact, Lina Reyes Geddes," Agent Davis said.

Detective-Sergeant Sweeney in Youngstown who is now working on a number of decades-old cold cases related to missing persons says it feels good to know what happened to the 37-year-old woman.

Agent Davis said, "The family is very grateful to know what happened to their loved one.  For 20 years they did not know what happened to her.  And for them to know despite these circumstances, they're grateful."

When asked by reporters if a serial killer in Colorado is still the prime suspect in the Reyes Geddes murder, Agent Davis said there is still evidence that Scott Kimball is allegedly responsible in this case.

But they are also now checking out a tip about Reyes Geddes deceased husband, who allegedly committed suicide in Nevada.  But at this point, he is not being called a suspect.

"That person was her husband at the time, Edward Geddes.  And again this is all new information to us.  And as I'm working with Youngstown we'll compare notes.  That's something we'll explore in detail," Agent Davis said.