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The other shoe has yet to drop in the 2005 murder of a Catholic deacon near Heber City. And now it looks unlikely it ever will.
On Sept. 25, 2005 -- in what authorities eventually came to suspect was a contract killing -- outreach worker Aniceto Armendariz was shot in the head on U.S. Highway 40 as he drove home with his wife from church.
Two Mexican immigrants, Antonio Pelaez-Vasquez, 58, and his son, Cunny Pelaez, 22, eventually pleaded guilty in 4th District Court to the murder near Jordanelle Reservoir in Wasatch County. In May 2007, Judge Samuel McVey sentenced each man to five years to life in prison.
But a conspiracy case has not materialized and investigators said this week they may never learn who ordered the murder of the popular Latino community leader.
"The case has either been closed or is inactive," said Capt. Mike Rapich, State Bureau of Investigation.
That's perplexing, Wasatch County Attorney Thomas Low conceded last week.
"It's troubling to me that the individual who put this in motion has not been held accountable," he said.
Events leading up to the shooting remain shrouded in unknowns. Neither suspect knew the deacon personally or had an apparent motive.
The case was difficult to prosecute, Low said, because the suspects spoke no English and were tight-lipped about the shooting.
It was only during the trials' sentencing phase that the prosecutor disclosed the killing was believed by investigators to be a paid hit.
Low told the judge that the pair "committed the murder at the request of someone else -- someone incarcerated in Utah."
Pelaez-Vasquez, the elder perpetrator, who was usually broke, was seen flashing rolls of hundred dollar bills shortly before the shooting, Low said.
That information was provided to the prosecutor, Low said, by state investigators Doug Miller and Tony Garcia. Both men have since retired and could not be reached for comment.
Rapich said he believed the case hit a dead end before they retired.
During trial, the investigators testified that Pelaez and Pelaez-Vasquez followed Aniceto and Alma Armendariz as they left a Spanish-language Mass in Park City en route to their home in Heber City.
According to those courtroom statements, the father had convinced his son to drive the van during the shooting. But when the time arrived, Pelaez-Vasquez was too intoxicated on cocaine and alcohol to aim a 20-gauge shotgun. At the last minute, the father took the wheel and the younger Pelaez shot the deacon as they drove down the highway.
Both vehicles then crashed about seven miles north of Heber City.
Alma Armendariz suffered minor physical injuries. But at a preliminary hearing, she testified of being traumatized by witnessing her husband's brutal murder.
The county attorney praised the investigators, but noted that a murder conspiracy case might never be solidified, particularly if Pelaez and Pelaez-Vasquez believe they are in danger from the person who hired them.
"As far as putting flesh on those bones to make a [conspiracy] case, it's probably not going to happen," Low said.
Alma Armendariz, who did not want authorities to seek the death penalty against her husband's assailants, last week would say only that the lack of closure in the case remains a "concern" to her.
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