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Farmington » Before he was sentenced Thursday to five years to life behind bars for the 1980 murder of Karin Saltzgiver Strom, Edward Owens dropped a bombshell allegation: Strom's estranged husband tried to pay him to kill her.
The convicted murderer testified his then-coworker, Steven Strom, offered him half of Karin Strom's life insurance money in exchange for killing her at Steven Strom's Woods Cross home.
"Mr. Strom had asked me to kill his wife on several different occasions," Owens said matter-of-factly, adding that Steven Strom left him a key to open the house door. "There was an argument between [Karin] and I, and I ended up strangling and killing her."
Still, Owens said he originally went to the house in the early morning hours of June 6, 1980, to warn Karin that her husband wanted her dead.
Owens' attorney, Michael Studebaker, would not say whether Owens ever collected money for the killing or how much cash was involved in the alleged murder-for-hire plot. Details could surface in an investigation into any role Steven Strom might have played in the murder, Studebaker said.
Davis County Prosecutor Troy Rawlings said the state has already begun that investigation and will interview Owens more extensively about Strom's alleged role.
Owens, 58, was not offered any form of plea deal to soften his sentence in exchange for admitting to the killing, Rawlings said. Studebaker said after the sentencing that Owens opened up about the slaying to give Strom's family closure.
Her sister, Coco Saltzgiver, said while she was relieved Owens finally confessed, it was obvious that he "didn't care one bit."
Facing the courtroom audience at the sentencing, a tearful Saltzgiver read a poem, reminiscing on the good times she shared with her sister -- from laughing and eating Popsicles to driving in Strom's Camero.
"You took away my best friend. How does a human being do that to another human being?" Saltzgiver asked, looking directly at Owens.
Karin Strom's stepmother, Melba Saltzgiver, told the judge she hoped Owens would "spend the rest of his life in jail."
The Saltzgivers said they had not thought much about Steven Strom or his alleged role in Karin's death. Coco Saltzgiver said while she is not a religious person, she thought of Thursday as her "day of ascension" -- the time in Christian doctrine when Jesus Christ ascended to heaven after his resurrection.
"What a beautiful day, and what is heaven but beauty?" she said. "Go sissy."
Steven Strom was initially arrested shortly after his wife's murder, but charges against him were dismissed due to a lack of evidence.
The case went cold until 2007, when Edward Owens was named a suspect after test results of old evidence showed DNA found under Karin Strom's fingernails and on her underwear. Attorneys for Owens argued at trial his DNA on Strom meant only that he interacted with her, not that he killed her. They also tried to show the jury investigators did a shoddy job of collecting evidence.