A man accused in a cold-case Utah murder was arrested in Haines on Wednesday.
Haines police and Alaska State Troopers assisted Ogden, Utah police in apprehending Stephen Ellenwood after he eluded law enforcement on a foot pursuit through a wooded Haines neighborhood.
The 40-year-old man is wanted in the 1993 murder of an elderly Ogden woman. According to charging documents filed in Utah and a cold-case report, Ellenwood is accused of climbing through a window of a retirement home, sexually assaulting and beating a 92-year-old woman. An employee of the retirement home walked in the room and the suspect, now identified as Ellenwood, fled through the window. The woman died from her injuries six days later.
About three hours later, at a bus stop only two blocks from the retirement home, a suspect also matching Ellenwood’s description sexually assaulted a 57-year-old woman. Authorities have not yet charged Ellenwood in that case.
An arrest warrant and aggravated murder charge were filed against Ellenwood on April 26 in Utah. Weber County Attorney Dee Smith on Wednesday told The Salt Lake Tribune that Ellenwood’s DNA matched evidence found in the slain woman’s room, although details of how authorities tracked him to Haines are still unclear.
Acquaintances and former co-workers of Ellenwood told station KHNS in Haines that he moved to Haines from Idaho less than a year ago. He worked at a Haines liquor store up until a few months ago.
According to Haines Police, Ellenwood was transported to Lemon Creek Correctional Facility in Juneau where he will be held without bail while awaiting extradition to Utah.
