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Background: A home in the community where the victim and her family lived (KUTV/YouTube). Insets (from top to bottom): Alvaro Jose Urbina Rojas and Jeusselem Elieth Genes Vitola (Saratoga Springs Police Department).
Authorities in Utah are on the hunt for a man accused of murdering his wife, with unsettling details surfacing about the events leading up to the crime. Alvaro Jose Urbina Rojas, 57, is at the center of a manhunt following accusations that he killed his 43-year-old wife, Jeusselem Elieth Genes Vitola. The Saratoga Springs Police Department made the announcement on Monday, shedding light on the chilling developments of the case.
According to reports, Rojas had offered to drive Vitola to work on the morning of February 26, as confirmed by the Saratoga Springs Police. At around 10 a.m., the couple left their home together, a normal routine that did not initially raise any red flags among family members. This was further elaborated by Saratoga Springs Police Chief Andrew Burton during a press conference, which was broadcast live on local Fox affiliate KSTU.
However, concern grew when the couple failed to return home that evening. It was then discovered that Vitola had not shown up at her workplace that day. This prompted the family to contact law enforcement, marking the beginning of a search that has since taken a grim turn.
In the initial stages of the investigation, family members expressed that they did not fear for the safety of either Rojas or Vitola, given the couple’s long history together. Married for nearly 19 years and having immigrated from Venezuela a decade ago, the couple seemed to lead a quiet, uneventful life. They have a daughter who is now an adult, and a son who is still a minor. According to family and police, there were no significant medical concerns or any previous encounters with law enforcement that might have suggested trouble was brewing.
Initially, family members “did not believe that either person was in danger,” according to Burton. They told officers that Rojas and Vitola had been married for about 19 years and had come to the U.S. from Venezuela about 10 years ago. The couple had an adult daughter and a “juvenile-aged son” together, had no serious medical issues, and “had no previous history with law enforcement.”
Despite the family”s fears that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) picked up the couple, investigators found that not to be the case. A day passed, and family members reported that they still had not heard from the couple.
Police filed a missing persons case and, with federal help, searched for Rojas’ and Vitola’s most recent cellphone activity, learning that her mobile phone was turned off but that his last “pinged” in the area of Draper, Utah, about 18 miles north of Saratoga Springs.
Through searches for the couple’s 2005 gray Toyota Sequoia with Utah plates, investigators learned that the vehicle was seen in Las Vegas, Nevada, midday on Feb. 26 — about 400 miles southwest of Saratoga Springs — before relevant credit card and “other purchases” that night in California. Burton expressed how the case then reached a new stage.
“It was learned from family members that [Rojas] had a camp trailer in a storage facility in Draper,” the police chief said, adding that the family members reported going there on Saturday but failing to see anything and finding it locked. On Monday, Saratoga Springs police detectives “obtained a search warrant for the trailer,” where they found Vitola’s body inside.
An autopsy was performed on Vitola’s body, and the case was ruled a homicide. And though police initially listed Rojas as a “person of interest,” police have since filed the murder charge against him.
The autopsy revealed that Vitola’s “hands were bound with a zip-tie, and there was a rope wrapped tightly around her hands and body,” according to Salt Lake City-based NBC affiliate KSL. “The results of an autopsy showed that [Vitola] died as the result of severe blunt force trauma to the head, and that there were indications of possible asphyxiation.”
Other details presented a harrowing portrait of a couple on the rocks.
On March 3, investigators reportedly learned that the couple “had been experiencing significant financial problems for approximately the last year, causing serious strain on their relationship.” Vitola had recently told her husband that she wanted a divorce, family members said.
Rojas “had become very jealous and suspicious” of his wife and had been following her, KSL added, citing court records. Investigators believe he may have “purposely tampered” with his wife’s vehicle so that it wouldn’t work, “thus forcing her to ask [him] for a ride to work, potentially for the purpose of giving himself the opportunity to kill [her].”
As of Tuesday, investigators believed Rojas may be in California.