This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2014, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
Two Taylorsville residents were found dead Tuesday in Millcreek Canyon in what police deemed a murder-suicide.
Two people up in the canyon heard gunshots around noon and went to the parking lot at the snow gate, about five miles up the canyon, to investigate. There, they found the bodies of a man and a woman who had been shot to death.
The people who discovered the bodies had to travel down the canyon to get cellphone service before calling Unified Police.
The shooting victims were identified as Lionel Williamson, 51, and his mother, Alice Williamson, 74, said UPD spokesman Lt. Justin Hoyal. The two lived together in a Taylorsville home.
Hoyal said Lionel Williamson used a rifle to shoot his mom, who was found in the passenger seat of a maroon Taurus, and then shot himself. Lionel Williamson was found on the ground behind the Taurus. A note inside the car indicated the deaths were a murder-suicide, Hoyal said, but he did not know whether it was written by Alice or Lionel Williamson.
Hoyal wouldn't discuss motives for the shootings. He said police were interviewing relatives of the Williamsons.