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Oakley • A man and a woman here died in a murder-suicide, the Summit County sheriff said on Sunday.
In an evening press conference, Sheriff Dave Edmunds said both victims suffered a single gunshot wound in the head from what Edmunds called a large-caliber handgun.
Authorities were withholding the names of the man and the woman, both in their 40s, until their families could be notified, but Edmunds described the episode as an act of domestic violence.
"We don't get a lot of these," Edmunds said. "This is a safe community."
A family friend discovered the bodies in a building about 1:15 p.m. Sunday and called police. Edmunds said the friend was concerned because he hadn't heard from the couple recently.
The bodies could have been in the building for as long as 24 hours before being discovered, Edmunds added.
At some point the couple lived in the upstairs apartment of the building where they were discovered, though Edmunds said he wasn't sure if they were still living there. The bodies reportedly were found on a lower level of the recently finished wooden building, in an area used as a garage.
The home is located in the 4000 block of River Road on the banks of the Weber River.
Neighbor Ron Lenfield said the building was so new and so quiet he hadn't known anyone was living there.
The structure is surrounded by grassy pasture land and low wooded hills.
Sunday evening, investigators set up electronic markers across the gravel driveway to help them re-create the scene.
Randy Brusnahan — who lives across the street — said he hasn't seen anything out of the ordinary in the neighborhood lately.
Lenfield, Brusnahan and other neighbors contacted by The Salt Lake Tribune said they had never met the occupants of the home.
The killings are believed to be the first in the Oakley area since 1990 when two parolees broke into a cabin near town and shot and killed Kaye Tiede, 49, and her mother, Beth Potts, 76. Three of the women's family members survived.
Von Lester Taylor is on Utah's death row for the crimes. His accomplice, Edward Steven Deli, is serving a life term.
jdalrymple@sltrib.comTwitter @jimmycdii