A Utah man who was arrested last fall for multiple sexual assaults in Utah and Wyoming that spanned a decade has allegedly confessed to several murders.
Several law enforcement sources have told FOX 13 that Mark Douglas Burns has confessed to at least three murders and an unknown amount of additional rape charges.
The television station reports that Burns, a 69-year-old truck driver from Ogden, has been linked to the death of 28-year-old Sue Ellen Gunderson Higgins, who was killed in Evanston, Wyo., in 2001.
Police have accused Burns of raping at least 11 women and girls between 1991 and 2001. The cases were cold for years, but law enforcement last year matched DNA evidence from the crime scenes to a genealogy DNA database, leading them to Burns. He is currently facing 17 charges in Utah, which range from aggravated sexual assault to aggravated burglary to kidnapping.
Burns has not yet been charged in Wyoming with murder or any other sexual assaults.
For more, visit FOX 13.
Editor’s note: The Salt Lake Tribune and FOX 13 are content-sharing partners.