This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2014, and information in the article may be outdated.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.
Murray police continued Monday to seek a male suspect in the slaying of an elderly woman believed to have been killed during a weekend break-in and subsequent fire.
Police spokesman Kenny Bass said the suspect remained at large, but the man's image was caught on video when he was briefly pulled over by a Utah Transit Authority police officer. The suspect was driving a car later learned to be stolen from the victim.
"We have nothing new at all" as to the man's whereabouts, Bass said Monday.
Police still would not specifically confirm the sequence of events, though it did appear that 84-year-old Shirley Sharp may have been surprised by an intruder who then killed her and possibly set a fire in her small, red-brick home at 20 E. Winchester St. (6400 South) early Saturday morning.
The official cause of death awaited results from an autopsy by the State Medical Examiner's Office, Bass said Monday.
Sharp, who lived alone in the home, was found dead by firefighters about 6 a.m. Police, who had gone to the home after tracing ownership of the suspicious car UTA had stopped the car about half an hour earlier, noticed smoke coming from her house and called in the blaze.
Sharp's car, a Buick LeSabre, had been stopped by the UTA officer for driving through a bus-only lane near 75 W. Cottonwood St. (about 4900 South). After briefly exiting the vehicle, the driver got back in and drove away. The UTA officer got the license plate number from the car and tracked the registration of the vehicle to Sharp's home.
The car was found abandoned near 4800 S. 500 West around noon Saturday.
The suspect, who appears to be a middle-aged man, wore blue jeans, an orange vest, and a light jacket with a hood.
Anyone with information is urged to call Murray police at 801-840-4000.
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