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He billed the trip to China as an answer to his troubles.
Faced with a number of civil lawsuits over unpaid loans and questionable deals, and accused of securities crimes that could have landed him in prison for 30 years, Thomas R. Blonquist promised a business deal with the potential to pay off his debts and make things right.
"He said there was no fraud or scam this time," said Davis County Attorney Troy Rawlings, who agreed to let Blonquist leave the country in June despite the pending criminal charges.
More than three months later, Rawlings and some of Blonquist's former associates are left wondering if the 72-year-old attorney and businessman is trying to pull off the nearly unimaginable scam of faking his own death.
But while law enforcement officials try to verify Blonquist's death, his family is left to grieve it.
When Blonquist missed an Aug. 15 hearing in Farmington's 2nd District Court, Rawlings wasn't surprised; it had been roughly two weeks since he'd received a copy of a letter from the American consulate in Chengdu, China, telling of Blonquist's death.
It's not unprecedented that a defendant dies in the middle of criminal proceedings. Generally, it means a judge will close the case and any outstanding warrants are recalled.
But on that day in August, Rawlings asked Judge John Morris to issue a no-bail warrant for Blonquist's arrest.
Twice since then, police have knocked on the door of Blonquist's home in Salt Lake City, his son told The Tribune in a recent interview.
"[They] want to arrest my father?" Tanner Blonquist said. "His ashes are on my piano."
For Blonquist's family, the ongoing investigation by the Davis County Attorney's Office has been indignity added to tragedy. "It's my family's wish that they have a little bit of respect," Tanner Blonquist said. "I have a hard time grasping the audacity."
However unpopular his efforts may be, Rawlings remains committed to the cause, saying he owes it to Blonquist's victims.
"Our focus right now is to find some way to objectively verify, one way or another, if Mr. Blonquist is deceased. If he is, of course, condolences to his family," Rawlings said. "I understand the family's desire for closure. On the other side of the coin, there are victims of Mr. Blonquist who want closure, too."
Some of those alleged victims join Rawlings in his skepticism surrounding reports of Blonquist's July 30 death.
Harry Weenig, a businessman who runs a food distribution company in Salt Lake County, loaned Blonquist money for a water-purification business but was never paid back. In August, Weenig won a court judgment of $92,000 against Blonquist, though he estimated he was owed closer to $125,000.
"He kept promising me the money," Weenig said. "On this last trip to China, he called ... and told my attorney he was going to bring back the money and pay it off. He didn't come back.
"It wouldn't surprise me to have him show up later."
In 2004, an investor named Douglas Miller won a judgment of $145,000 against Blonquist and one of his companies. Miller's attorney, Richard Nemelka, said Blonquist never invested the money per their agreement — a claim Blonquist has disputed in court.
"He never paid us a damn dime," Nemelka said. "He's one of the biggest crooks I've ever met."
Nemelka shared in Weenig's doubts about Blonquist's death.
"I'm sure he's out there somewhere," the attorney said.
At the time of his purported death, Blonquist also was being sued by a former client who claimed she was bilked out of $500,000. Davis County prosecutors, meanwhile, had charged Blonquist with four second-degree felonies for allegedly stealing some $250,000 from a woman in her 80s who gave him the money to invest in water purification technology.
Blonquist, an attorney since 1965 and a businessman, was two years removed from navigating one of his companies, Gin Kin LC, out of bankruptcy, and a 2009 financial filing showed he had more than $2 million in assets.
Tanner Blonquist defended his father as a businessman hit hard by tough economic times.
"He died trying to get these people their money," he said. "You can call him a crook if you like, but he spent his last breaths attempting to make people the money back that they had invested. People need to know when they go into business deals that there's risk involved. ... In this economy and the down market, he had a hard time getting it back to them. That doesn't sound like a crook to me."
Money may have been Blonquist's motivation in visiting China — "the last place he'd ever want to be," Tanner Blonquist said, adding that his father hated the crowded cities and the food.
If Blonquist indeed faked his own death, Rawlings said, it would not have been because of his financial problems.
"He was looking ... at up to 30 years in prison," Rawlings said. "He may have done enough time that he very well may have died in prison."
Tanner Blonquist calls the ongoing investigation surrounding his father "disrespectful and naive."
"It's hard enough to have to lose one of your family members," he said. "It's a bit obnoxious to have to endurethese other things."
Chinese officials have confirmed the death of an American named Thomas Blonquist. The man's family has provided copies of an autopsy and death certificate to prosecutors, showing Blonquist died of natural causes. Blonquist's body was cremated in China, which made DNA testing impossible, Rawlings said.
Rawlings' investigation, meanwhile, has turned up "new information" that continues to cause officials to be skeptical, Rawlings said, though he declined to discuss specifics.
"Our objective is to bring closure one way or another," Rawlings said. "But at this point in time, we're not sure we're going to be able to do that. There's no scientific, objective way to conclusively prove that Mr. Blonquist passed away. So that continues to fester at our victims."
Rawlings said officials won't actively pursue the warrant for Blonquist at this point, but his criminal case will remain open.
"As long as we continue to have leads that have any credibility at all, we'll continue to track them down," Rawlings said.
Blonquist's cremated remainswereshipped from China late last month, delayed by an autopsy, Tanner Blonquist said. The man's family held a small memorial service for him on Oct. 1. It would have been his 73rd birthday.
Tanner Blonquist said he would like to be among the doubters in a story that might be better suited to a made-for-television drama than the 2nd District Court of Utah.
"Heck — I'm all for it," he said. "I wish it was true. I wish my father was alive. Unfortunately, I have his ashes."
Twitter: @aaronfalk —
The case against Blonquist
Charged with securities fraud for allegedly bilking a woman out of roughly $250,000, Thomas R. Blonquist told prosecutors in June he had a pending business deal in China that would allow him to pay restitution inhis criminal case. Blonquist's family says he died July 30 while on that trip, but prosecutors have refused to close the case and recall an arrest warrant.