This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2005, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
Salt Lake City police looking into the 1986 stabbing death of Tiffany Hambleton have taken blood from one of their persons of interest: a man who allegedly was fascinated with knives.
Two vials of blood were taken from the 50-year-old man, according to a search warrant returned Thursday to 3rd District Court in Salt Lake City.
The crime lab found a substance in the evidence gathered for the case that did not belong to 14-year-old Hambleton, said police spokesman Dwayne Baird. Investigators are now getting DNA samples from persons of interest to compare to that substance.
Hambleton was last seen alive in February 1986. She was found in April concealed in a ditch in Salt Lake City's west side, stabbed to death.
The person of interest's then-common law wife reported around April 1, 1986, to police that he had come home "covered with blood," according to the search warrant documents.
When a Salt Lake City police detective talked to the woman on Aug. 12, 2005, she said didn't know the exact day that incident took place but it was around the time the man was arrested for soliciting a prostitute - four weeks after Hambleton disappeared and two weeks before her body was found, according to the documents.
The woman said the man came home "covered in blood" and with a cut on the left side of his rib cage. He asked the woman to stitch the wound and said he would not go to the hospital "because they ask too many questions," according to the documents. He then stitched the wound himself.
She also said the man had blood spatter on his shirt - which apparently did not come from his wound. He also had blood splatters on his arms and face.
The woman said her ex-husband had told her he had sexual encounters with more than 25 prostitutes and had a fascination with knives, according to the documents. He allegedly had threatened her with a knife multiple times.