Uintah County sheriff seeks suspects in vandalism of memorial cross

Uintah County sheriff's deputies are looking for suspects in acts of vandalism on a memorial cross honoring one of their own.

As of Wednesday, no one had been arrested in connection with the latest defacing of the privately funded cross. The memorial is within a fenced-off parcel where eastern Utah's Highway 40 crosses the Green River, near the Green River Bridge in Jensen.

Detective Kevin Orr, 34, died of injuries suffered in the November 2006 crash of a helicopter attempting to locate a missing woman along the river. Last Friday, his widow, Holley, and one of his children went to visit the cross only to find someone had scrawled the words "Dead pig" and "Illegal Cross" next to the memorial's portrait of Orr, said Sheriff's Cpl. Brian Fletcher.

The words, in green marker ink, were eventually scrubbed away, but the pain remains. In the six years the cross has been up it has been vandalized — shot, painted and driven into — four times.

The Orr family is offering a $2,000 reward for information leading to an arrest in the case.

Anyone with information about this case is asked to call the Uintah County Sheriff's Office at at 435-789-2511 or dispatchers at 435-789-4222.

remims@sltrib.com

Twitter: @remims