Thomas E. Noffsinger will spend the rest of his life in prison for a brutal murder committed during a decades-old restaurant burglary, the Utah Board of Pardons and Parole decided Wednesday.
Noffsinger, 42, was serving up to life in prison for the March 3, 1990, stabbing death of 37-year-old Victor Aguilar, a pie chef at a Marie Callender's restaurant in Salt Lake City, who left behind a wife and four young children.
Noffsinger is also a chief suspect in the 1989 disappearance of a Sandy woman, 38-year-old Annette Hill, who was last seen in the early-morning hours of May 13, 1989, just blocks from the Avenues apartment where Noffsinger lived at the time.
Debra Lynne, a niece of Hill's, said Wednesday: "We're very relived that [Noffsinger] won't be walking the streets with the rest of us, and very happy for the Aguilar family."
Relatives of Hill attended Noffsinger's parole hearing earlier this month in hopes the inmate would reveal what had happened to the single mother of an 11-year-old girl.
During the investigation of Aguilar's slaying, police found items belonging to Hill at apartments Noffsinger had rented -- a blood-stained black purse containing Hill's driver license and a pill bottle bearing her name.
Parole board vice chairman Clark Harms had asked Noffsinger how he acquired Hill's belongings and Noffsinger repeated what he told police 20 years ago: He never met Hill. He stole the purse during a car burglary.
"I was always car-hopping -- stealing what I could from people's cars," Noffsinger told Harms.
Harms replied, "That explanation seems fairly ludicrous to me."
Retired Salt Lake City homicide Detective Jill Candland said after the hearing she believes Noffsinger killed Hill and disposed of her body, which has never been found.
Candland said Hill was carrying her purse on the night she disappeared, while her car sat unmolested in the carport of her Sandy condo.
Annette Hill's nephew, Paul McCurdy, told The Tribune he had talked to Noffsinger by phone once and written him three letters in recent months "asking for answers and closure."
McCurdy said Noffsinger told him, "There's nothing I can say or do to ease your mind aside from giving you a place where she may or may not be, and I'm unable to do that."
Allen Hill said his sister's disappearance had caused "a great deal of anxiety for our family."
Aguilar was killed when he arrived for work about 4 a.m. at the Marie Callender's restaurant, 52 W. 200 South, where Noffsinger, then 19, had once worked, and where he and accomplice Grant David Stensrud, 20, were prying loose a floor safe.
Encountering Aguilar in the kitchen, Noffsinger stabbed him five times in the back with a 12-inch-long knife, then slit his throat, according to Candland.
Stensrud, who claimed he kicked Aguilar and then left the kitchen, pleaded guilty to first-degree felony murder and was sentenced to five years to life in prison. He was paroled in 2007. Noffsinger pleaded guilty to capital murder and was sentenced to prison for up to life.
During Noffsinger's parole hearing, Julia Aguilar described her struggle raise four children by herself, who were then 9 months, 5, 7 and 8 years old. But she told Noffsinger, "I have no hatred ... I have learned to forgive."
The slain man's oldest daughter, Elizabeth Aguilar, also said she had forgiven Noffsinger. But she nevertheless called him "the monster who destroyed my family," and said he should remain in prison for life.
She noted that Noffsinger pleaded guilty to capital murder to avoid potential execution. "He traded the death penalty for life in prison, and that's what he should get," Aguilar said.
Noffsinger wept as he apologized for killing Aguilar. In asking for a parole date, he claimed he was "a much better person than what I was. ... If given a chance for parole, I've no doubt I could succeed in society."
On the evening of May 12, 1989, Annette Hill said good night to her 11-year-old daughter at their Sandy condominium and left for a Friday night on the town.
Leaving her vehicle in her carport, the 38-year-old social worker went to Club 90, in Sandy, and then to Salt Lake City's Zephyr Club, according to police.
From there, Hill went home with a man who lived in the Avenues, but left his residence early that morning and was never seen again. Police say the man was thoroughly investigated and ruled out as a suspect.
About 10 months later, Hill's blood-stained black purse containing her driver license, and a prescription pill bottle bearing her name, were found at homes rented by Thomas Noffsinger, who was then being investigated for the slaying of a Marie Callender's pie chef.
Noffsinger insists he acquired the items during a car burglary. But retired Salt Lake City homicide Detective Jill Candland believes Noffsinger, who lived in the Avenues, was on his way home from work when he encountered Hill, killed her and disposed of her body.
Sandy Capt. Warren Jeffery said if they obtained new information about Hill's case, "We would certainly open it up. All the leads we've received to this point haven't panned out."
