This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2010, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
The transient man Salt Lake City police arrested for a rape in Pioneer Park is also being named as the suspect in the rape and brutal murder of a woman in Fairmont Park.
Paul David Vara, 30, was found in the Trolley Square area Wednesday just before 11 a.m., said Salt Lake police Detective Pat Wilkinson. Police were searching for the man in connection with a Dec. 14 aggravated sexual assault in the downtown park. Facts during the interrogation pointed to Vara's involvement in the Dec. 18 rape and death of Kristine Marie Gabel, 45, in Sugar House.
Detectives booked Vara into the Salt Lake County jail on suspicion of homicide, two counts of aggravated sexual assault and one count of object rape.
Police documents indicate the sexual assault against Gabel was savage. The medical examiner's office is still determining the cause of death.
Police have said that Gabel had not been dead long before she was found at about 2:40 p.m. in a women's restroom on the north end of the park, at about 2300 South and 900 East.
"Any time an individual is out there committing any kind of crime like a sexual assault, we want him off the streets so he can't offend again," Wilkinson said.
Gabel's sister, Sherrie Allred Rice, said she and her family are "greatly relieved" police have made an arrest.
"This is not going to bring back my sister or lessen the loss that we feel," she said. "But knowing he has to face justice, knowing he's off the streets and cannot do this to another individual so another family doesn't have to go through the pain and loss we've felt is a good thing."