This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2012, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
A botched carjacking in Nevada this weekend led to the grisly discovery of a double homicide in central Utah.
The bodies of Leroy and Dorotha Fullwood, 70 and 69, were discovered Saturday night in their Mount Pleasant home after police in Nevada came across their names in an abandoned car connected to a shooting in West Wendover, police said.
The investigation began Saturday morning, when witnesses reported a carjacking in West Wendover. A woman got in the car with the victim, and a man followed in another car, police said. The victim then fought off the woman and pushed her out of the car, police said. The victim was shot in the head as she escaped, and the couple fled in the car driven by the man.
Police found that car abandoned in Wells, Nev., where the couple allegedly stole a Volkswagen Jetta that was warming in a Super 8 motel parking lot. They then led troopers on a high-speed chase west and then east on Interstate 80, said Nevada Highway Patrol Trooper Jim Stewart. They drove around a spike strip troopers had laid down and then turned south into a ranch near Oasis, Nev. Officers followed but lost them on the dirt roads in the ranch, Stewart said.
Inside the abandoned car, police found a sales receipt made out for a credit card belonging to the Fullwoods. That prompted police to check their home, at 399 S. 600 East, about 8 p.m. Saturday, said Mt. Pleasant police Chief Jim Wilberg.
The Fullwoods were found shot to death, apparently during a break-in, Wilberg said.
"The house has been ransacked," he said. "It's all been gone through."
Neighbors heard gunshots about 1:30 a.m. Friday, Wilberg said, but investigators have not confirmed that was the time of the shooting that killed the Fullwoods.
Wilberg would not say what items were taken from their home.
Meanwhile, the victim in the West Wendover carjacking underwent surgery in a Salt Lake City hospital, police have said. She was in critical condition Saturday night.
The suspects are described as a Caucasian male and female driving a gray Volkswagen Jetta with a Colorado license plate number 725 WHX. They are believed to be armed and dangerous with multiple weapons. Troopers and Elko County sheriff's deputies continued the manhunt Sunday with two airplanes, Stewart said.