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Spanish Fork • Murder charges against Roger K. and Pamela Ann Mortensen were dropped Wednesday morning and she was released from Utah County jail, where the couple has spent nearly five months as suspects in the grisly murder of Roger's father, a crime police now say they did not commit.
Pamela Mortensen, 35, walked out of the jail about 12:20 p.m. and got into a car, holding the hands of her mother and sister. She turned her head away from reporters, saying only: "I'm fine, thank you."
Her attorney, Greg Skordas, said she showed little emotion until she left the jail in street clothes.
"She broke down," he said. "Until she walked out the door, she didn't think the nightmare was really over."
Meanwhile, a 4th District judge set bail at $1 million cash-only for the two 23-year-old men who police say are the true culprits in the murder of former Brigham Young University professor Kay Mortensen.
Police announced the arrests Tuesday, saying Ben D. Rettig and Martin C. Bond were targeting Kay Mortensen's extensive cache of firearms. Both are being held at the Utah County jail on suspicion of aggravated murder, aggravated burglary and aggravated kidnapping.
Fourth District Judge Darold McDade ordered the charges against the Mortensens be dropped in a hastily called, seconds-long hearing Wednesday morning, Skordas said. Roger Mortensen, 49, will continue to be held on federal charges of being a felon in possession of a firearm, which were filed after detectives found guns in his home while serving a search warrant in the murder.
He is scheduled to stand trial Jan. 18 on those charges, according to federal court records.
His father, 70-year-old Kay Mortensen, was found bent over the bathtub of his Payson home on Nov. 16, 2009. Roger and Pam Mortensen were at the house, and told police they were tied up by two or three men who stole 32 guns. After freeing themselves, they maintained they found the retired engineering professor dead.
But in the months after his slaying, the pair changed their stories about that night, investigators said. Though minor, those inconsistencies led prosecutors to file murder charges.
Police continued to investigate Kay Mortensen's death, however, and on Tuesday arrested Bond and Rettig in Vernal. They found Bond in a Vernal home, along with about 20 guns in a park septic tank and buried at a location outside town, according to jail documents. Handguns belonging to Mortensen were found in a bag during the search, Tracy said.
Bond told police Rettig slit Kay Mortensen's throat and stabbed him in the back of the neck, making "a statement related to a gladiator," according to jail documents. Rettig, however, told police Bond cut Mortensen's throat.
Bond's father knew Kay Mortensen, his widow Darla Mortensen said Tuesday.
Bond had been to Mortensen's home before and told Rettig that he knew where they could find a large cache of guns worth up to $30,000, according to police.
Neither Bond nor Rettig appear to have criminal records in Utah.
Asked whether the Mortensens were still being investigated in the case, Utah County Sheriff James Tracy said Tuesday: "I'm not prepared to say we're not going to continue looking at them. They were persons of interest, and they remain persons of interest."
Skordas said the Mortensens didn't know Rettig or Bond and that Pamela Mortensen has agreed to cooperate with police as a witness in the case.