This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2015, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
Unified Police can thank a concerned convenience store clerk, an off-duty Murray police officer and the urge for a parking lot nap for taking a fatal hit-and-run suspect into custody.
UPD Lt. Lex Bell said Mika Lindquist, 31, had been on the run since Sept. 24, when she allegedly struck and mortally injured 56-year-old Ronald Renfro as he crossed 7200 South near 35 West in Midvale. He later died at a hospital.
On Tuesday, she was finally behind bars, being held on a warrant for an earlier drug-related case while detectives screened charges related to the hit-and-run with the Salt Lake County District Attorney's Office.
Bell said the off-duty Murray officer had stopped by a Chevron station at 3215 W. 5400 South in Taylorsville about 6 a.m. when the clerk approached him and asked the officer to check on an unconscious woman in a car parked outside the business.
The officer checked on the rental car and Lindquist, learning that she was wanted on the warrant. He contacted UPD to take over, and officers confirmed she also was the suspect in the Renfro hit-and-run.
Lindquist was booked into the Salt Lake County jail on the $25,000 drug-related warrant, as well as suspicion of failure to remain at the scene of an accident involving death and obstruction of justice.
Meanwhile, UPD detectives and prosecutors were expediting the screening of formal charges in the hit-and-run case.
The warrant for Lindquist's arrest was issued last month after she failed to appear in 3rd District Court on charges of third-degree felony drug possession and class C misdemeanor failure to register a vehicle.
The charges stem from a March 2 traffic stop, during which a UPD officer searched Lindquist's backpack and found a baggie containing a substance that tested positive for methamphetamine.
Early this month, the district attorney's office filed a forfeiture petition against Lindquist and a man related to the seizure of more than $2,800 in cash that was found inside a rental car during a Sept. 3 traffic stop. Court papers say UPD officers also found drug paraphernalia inside the car, including a glass pipe and a digital scale, and that the money may have been used to buy drugs or be the proceeds of drug sales.
Lindquist's criminal history dates back to 2011, when she was charged in Salt Lake County Justice Court with misdemeanor counts of driving under the influence and negligent collision. She resolved the case by entering a guilty plea in abeyance to the negligent collision charge. The case was dismissed a year later.
This year, she was charged in two shoplifting cases, as well as a handful of traffic violations, court records show.
Twitter: @remims