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Ogden • Weber County's top prosecutor expects a man charged late last week with the 1983 rape and murder of an 11-year-old girl to be extradited from Idaho within the next two months.
Speaking to reporters at a Monday morning news conference, Weber County Attorney Dee Smith outlined the case against Gregory L. Seamons, and lauded Ogden detectives for solving a 29-year-old mystery, bringing closure to Rebecca Lemberger's mother."There isn't anything that can happen now that can undo what happened to her daughter back in 1983," Smith said. "But she's got some answers now."
An arrest warrant filed in 2nd District Court alleges Seamons, 44, was the person who killed 11-year-old Rebecca, who went missing after walking to Edison Elementary School on March 2, 1983.
After she was reported missing, a pair of 11-year-old classmates grabbed BB guns from their homes and told their parents they were "going to look for Becky," according to news accounts at the time. They found her in a wooden shed near the school. She was underneath an old mattress, wrapped in a blanket. Police said her head had been smashed at least eight times with a rock.
Evidence collected at the scene indicated Rebecca also had been raped. Nearly 30 years later, officials said a DNA match led them to Seamons, who is serving prison time in Idaho. According to the warrant, a DNA sample taken by Seamons in July 2011 matched the DNA from the 1983 murder scene, which was placed into a national database. Police also determined that Seamons, who was 15 at the time, was living in the same Ogden neighborhood as the Lembergers at the time she was killed. Police verified the DNA match in October 2011.
Smith credited the Ogden Police Department for its work.
"They feel like they owe it to victims of violent crimes not to let their cases go," he said. "For the families that have suffered this loss, that never goes away. But if you can provide some answers and closure…it's very rewarding."
Seamons was interviewed from prison twice and told police he did not know the victim and was not with her during the time frame when she was murdered.
Seamons has been charged with first-degree murder and rape, both first-degree felonies.
The Idaho Department of Correction website states that Seamons is currently in prison for a second-degree kidnapping conviction. His prison sentence is scheduled to end in 2017.
Lemberger's mother, who now lives in California, declined to speak with a Tribune reporter when reached for comment. "This whole thing is rather overwhelming," she said.