A 51-year-old man from Utah faces a potential life sentence after being found guilty of killing his wife by suffocation, following a brutal assault, while attempting to pass off her death as a result of liver disease.

Eric Larson Sampson received a sentence on Monday ranging from 15 years to life in prison for the murder of his 47-year-old wife, Niki Sampson, at their St. George residence. His conviction for murder and related charges was handed down in February.

Police discovered Niki Sampson’s body on September 1, 2024, showing clear signs of physical abuse. Her husband had a documented history of domestic violence, and in the months leading up to her death, he had made threats against her.

Despite the evidence, Eric Sampson continued to assert that her death was due to health complications, maintaining this claim even during his sentencing.

“My intention was never to blame anyone. I cared deeply for her. I genuinely wanted to understand what led to her death,” he stated, as reported by local NBC affiliate KSL.

District Judge Eric Gentry was flabbergasted at the defendant’s lack of remorse.

“Mr. Sampson lives in a world of delusion, denial, self-absorption and victimhood,” he reportedly said.

The adult Sampson kids also spoke at sentencing, lamenting that they lost their mother and their children will grow up without a grandmother.

They have no doubt their father is the one who killed their mom.

“He wanted my mother dead, and he wanted to gain her life insurance,” said Shaley Encinias, per KSL. “He watched my mother struggle and fight, and he looked directly into her eyes as he killed her.”

As Law&Crime previously reported, police were called to a home on a report of a woman possibly having a cardiac arrest in St. George, a medium-sized city in the southwestern part of the state near Nevada.

Police found the victim dead in the home. Officers deemed the circumstances around her death suspicious, and Sampson was quickly arrested.

Citing an arrest report, local Fox affiliate KSTU reported police noted “suspicious bruising” on her body and face “in different stages of healing, although many of the bruises appeared to be fresh.”

KSL reported that police found the victim’s journal.

In it were notes about “how Eric became angry and aggressive when under the influence of alcohol,” according to the affidavit cited by the outlet. “Other notes stated Eric was an alcoholic, and [Niki Sampson] wrote that she wanted to escape from Eric. One of the entries specifically mentioned that [Niki Sampson] was afraid for her life.”

Eric Sampson was out of custody on his own recognizance after pleading not guilty to charges that he attacked her in the backyard in July 2024, KSL reported. Court documents said he grabbed her and threw her on their bed, placed his knees on her arms to pin them down and pulled her hair, the report said.

Niki Sampson called the police and ran to the backyard. There, Eric Sampson grabbed her with both hands and threw her on the ground, according to the documents.

He allegedly told police he was grabbing her “to calm her down” and that she had hit and kicked him, the documents said.

“While speaking to Eric, I smelled a strong odor of an alcoholic beverage emitting from his person,” the report said. “I also saw he had bloodshot watery eyes and continued to make repetitive statements.”

In 1974, Mark Smith departed from his home in Billings, Montana, embarking on a cross-country journey from which he never returned.

Fast forward 51 years, the Oregon State Police have confirmed that a skull discovered in 1978 belongs to the long-missing teenager, finally bringing closure to a mystery that has lingered with Smith’s family for generations.

“His sister told the medical examiner’s office that the family thought of him every day during the more than 50 years since his disappearance,” the police mentioned in their statement.

Renewed Effort Reveals Clue in Mark Smith Disappearance

A forensic pathologist and odontologist initially believed the remains belonged to a female between the ages of 16 and 18, but were unable to give investigators any other clues to go on. 

For years the case sat dormant, until the State Medical Examiner’s Office submitted the remains to the University of North Texas in 2020 for DNA extraction and analysis, police said. The analysis revealed the remains belonged to a male, but investigators were unable to match it to any known missing persons cases and there was “insufficient nuclear DNA” to create a full profile to upload to the national CODIS database.

That same year, authorities noted in the release, the private DNA laboratory DNA Labs International (DLI) agreed to work the case pro bono with the medical examiner’s Human Identification Program to try to enhance the DNA testing. The National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC) also joined the effort, commissioning a forensic artist to complete facial reconstruction of the skull.

“Despite these efforts,” police said, “no new information emerged at the time.”

Genealogical Leads Help Investigators Identify Remains of Mark Smith

The “first genealogical leads” came around 2023 when DLI was able to create a ancestry summary of the remains, concluding that the deceased had been a blend of North Atlantic, Baltic and Western Mediterranean heritage, authorities noted in the release. 

“Genealogists were able to identify an ancestor born in the early 1800s from whom the unidentified individual descended,” police said. “However, the family line stalled shortly thereafter, and even whole genome sequencing could only identify distant lineage.”

Then in September of 2025, investigators discovered that a new DNA kit had been submitted that helped them build out the family tree and identify a family with several siblings, one of whom had disappeared in 1974. 

Authorities collected buccal swabs from the family to match to the remains. DLI confirmed on Feb. 25 that the family samples were a match, finally allowing the Human Identification Program and State Medical Examiner’s Office to conclusively identify the remains as Smith.

Police said there’s no evidence to suggest the teen was a victim of foul play, however, they are still working to retrace his final movements. 

“We are grateful that Mark has finally been returned to his family,” state forensic anthropologist Hailey Collord-Stalder said. “This identification reflects years of persistence, scientific collaboration, and the evolving power of forensic genetic genealogy.”

Smith’s family has asked for privacy in the wake of the discovery.

The identification, according to police, was a joint effort by numerous agencies including the Oregon State Medical Examiner’s Office, DLI, the University of North Texas, NCMEC, and the Josephine County Sheriff’s Office.

Rex Heuermann, the man suspected of being the Long Island serial killer, is anticipated to enter a guilty plea during his upcoming court date in April. This development follows the grim saga that has haunted both the victims’ families and the community for years.

Family members of the women Heuermann is accused of killing have disclosed to Newsday that they were informed about the expected plea. Heuermann, a 62-year-old former architect from Manhattan, faces charges linked to the deaths of seven sex workers who went missing over a span of nearly two decades, from 1993 to 2010. These women include the infamous “Gilgo 4,” who were discovered along a remote stretch of Gilgo Beach, as reported by CrimeOnline.

The victims, whose tragic stories remained unsolved until the case’s reopening in 2022, are Valerie Mack, 24; Jessica Taylor, 20; Megan Waterman, 22; Melissa Barthelemy, 24; Maureen Brainard-Barnes, 25; Sandra Costilla, 28; and Amber Lynn Costello, 27. The chilling case saw a breakthrough in July 2023 when Heuermann was apprehended and charged with the murders of Waterman, Barthelemy, and Costello, three of the Gilgo 4. Charges for the deaths of Brainard-Barnes, Taylor, and Costilla followed, and eventually, Mack was also added to the list.

Despite the mounting evidence, Heuermann has consistently denied any involvement in the murders. His trial was initially slated to commence in September, yet the anticipated guilty plea signifies a potential shift in the case’s trajectory.

He has so far publicly denied any connection with the murders, and his trial was expected to begin in September.

Newsday did not obtain any details of a possible plea deal, and it could fall apart by Heuermann’s April 8 court date — or the judge could decline to sign off on it.

The Gilgo 4 women all disappeared between 2007 and 2009, and their remains found near Gilgo Beach in December 2010. Mack disappeared in 2000 and Taylor in 2003; their bodies were found near one another in the woodlands near Manorville. Costilla’s body was found in North Sea in 1993. The bodies of those three women were all found within days of their disappearances.

Among the evidence against him was DNA that linked him to six of the seven women. The DNA belonged to Heuermann, his wife, and his daughter — and in the case of Costilla, to his wife at the time of Costilla’s killing.

Prosecutors also revealed a “planning document” they found during a search of Heuermann’s Massapaqua home that provided details on how to carry out the killings and avoid capture.

The April 8 hearing has been scheduled for a defense motion filed in the case. If Heuermann does change his plea at that time, the judge will set a date for sentencing.