This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2017, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
Travelers along the Wasatch Front may begin to see more billboards soliciting tips for Salt Lake City cold cases, police say.
Funding for the billboards stems from a grant awarded to the Salt Lake City Police Department for cases in which investigators have hit dead ends, said Detective Greg Wilking.
"This is a tactic we've seen in other places, so we're giving it a try," Wilking said.
One such billboard, on 600 North just east of Interstate 15, highlights the homicide case of Kerry Arbon, whose body was found by a bicyclist Sept. 11, 1991, in some bushes on a road that loops up behind Memory Grove Park (300 N. Canyon Road).
Arbon, 40, of Orem, had been robbed and had multiple gunshot wounds, at least one of which was in his head.
A couple of days later, police found his car parked near 200 North and 200 West, Wilking said.
At the time, Memory Grove had been a popular spot for gay men to cruise for sexual partners, Wilking said. Arbon led a closeted life "due to social norms of the day," played the organ at his church and lived with his mother, while "discretely" driving up to Salt Lake City to meet other men, Wilking said.
The man was likely targeted because he was gay, Wilking said.
Arbon was an "upstanding citizen" and a "pure victim" with no criminal history, Wilking said. A person's sexual preference is "not a reason to be killed," Wilking said. "He didn't deserve this."
Wilking said police have "nothing to go on" in the case and hope bringing it back to the public's attention will help "jar somebody's memory."
Police also hope the billboards will generate interest and serve as a visual reminder of the person who was killed.
"We're asking anybody who knew Kerry up in the Salt Lake area to come forward," Wilking said, noting that at the time the homicide occurred, no one from the area had spoken to police.
Police plan to highlight other cases, such as a homicide that occurred at a car wash on Redwood Road last year, the 1995 abduction and killing of 6-year-old Rosa Tapia, and the 2014 shooting of 18-year-old Gustavo Jarquin on the west side of Salt Lake City.
Twitter: @mnoblenews