Lyman • From their kitchen window, Madelyne and Earl Deleeuw look out at Margaret Oldroyd’s home — the first house travelers pass when entering this small town from Loa along State Route 24 through Wayne County.

“It’s going to be hard looking out that window and seeing Margaret’s home,” Earl Deleeuw said Friday, two days after Oldroyd was killed inside her house.

Deleeuw’s wife, Madelyne, remembered the garden Oldroyd always tended. “And she worked it,” she said with a smile.

Oldroyd was one of three women killed Wednesday in Wayne County. Linda Dewey, 65, and her niece, Natalie Graves, 34, were found dead at the Cocks Comb trailhead along Teasdale Road off of State Route 12.

Ivan Miller, 22, was arrested early Thursday morning in Colorado. Prosecutors in Wayne County filed three charges of aggravated murder against him later that day. On Friday, in his first court appearance, Miller’s attorney said he would fight extradition to Utah.

One of Oldroyd’s neighbors, Loryn Morgan of nearby Loa, said she often saw her outside tending to her flowers.

Morgan, whose father owns Blackburn Propane, a gas station near Oldroyd’s house, said she often spotted Oldroyd gardening while driving past her home.

Growing up, Morgan would also see her around town — as Oldroyd worked at Royal’s Market, the grocery store in Loa, or at Sunday services at The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints’ meetinghouse in Lyman.

“She was always so sweet,” Morgan said. “She was just loved by everybody.”

For Madelyne Deleeuw, 88, the loss is especially personal. She has lived in Lyman for about 50 years and called Oldroyd her best friend.

She said she remembers the many times Oldroyd stopped by her home just to check in or arrived on her birthday with a card and a bright smile. Deleeuw said she suspects Oldroyd treated many people the same way.

“That’s the kind of person she was,” she said. “She took care of all of us.”

In the days since the killings, the Deleeuws said they have mostly stayed home, still shaken by the violence in their quiet community.

Across Wayne County, pink ribbons tied into bows now hang from businesses and street signs in memory of the three women — a gesture that didn’t surprise Madelyne Deleeuw.

“That’s how the whole town feels about her,” she said. “There was only one Margaret.”

When news first spread Wednesday that authorities were searching for a suspect, officials urged residents to lock their doors and stay inside — an unfamiliar warning in a place like Wayne County, Morgan said.

“It was really alarming,” Morgan said. “We really weren’t sure what was actually happening.”

While information from authorities was limited at first, Morgan said neighbors quickly began checking on one another. Everyone was “checking their circle,” she said, making sure friends and family were safe.

‘The heart of our family’

Down the road in Torrey, the grief has been just as heavy.

Linda Ward said she has known Linda Dewey since Dewey moved to Torrey several years ago. The two would attend meditation groups together and occasionally go to yoga classes Dewey taught in nearby Grover.

When Ward learned her friend had been killed, she said, the shock and grief came in waves.

On Friday, Ward drove to the Cocks Comb trailhead and placed pink silk flowers beneath a tree where friends and family have begun leaving tributes to the three women. It was the first day since learning the news that Ward said she could begin to process it.

“It was surreal. I’m finally feeling like I can feel again today,” Ward said. “But yesterday, I was pretty much paralyzed, because it was so devastating.”

In a statement shared Friday with The Insider, a publication that serves Wayne and Garfield counties, Dewey’s relatives said they were “dealing with the shock” of losing both family members.

In hiking the Cocks Comb trail, the family said in the statement, Dewey and Graves “were bonding over the beauty of a hike in one of their favorite places on earth — cherished by them and the community, considered to be a safe sanctuary.”

Linda Dewey, the family said, “was the heart of our family. … She was loved deeply and loved her family deeply.”

Graves, the statement continued, “was joy, sunshine and beauty embodied,” and she was “adored by her many friends and extended family members.”

The family asked the media to “give us privacy during a time when we need to be with each other and need time and space to process what has happened. … We are at a loss for words that can describe what we are feeling and cannot publicly express our sadness and devastation at this time.”

Dewey’s family placed photos of both women at Cocks Comb trailhead. “We invite friends and family to memorialize them and place offerings as needed,” the statement read.

In Massachusetts, co-workers of Taylor Graves, the husband of Natalie Graves, launched a GoFundMe campaign Friday to help cover funeral expenses and estate fees.

“For those who knew them, it was clear that Taylor and Natalie shared a rare and profound bond,” wrote Joseph Kolchinsky, CEO and founder of Boston-based tech company OneVision, where Taylor Graves works. “After Taylor lost his beloved dog, Navi, in December, he spoke about how much it meant to have Natalie by his side as they worked through that grief together.”

Kolchinsky kicked off the GoFundMe campaign Friday with a $5,000 donation. By Monday morning, the campaign had reached more than $29,000 in pledges, surpassing its initial goal of $15,000. The goal has since been raised to $40,000.

A Real Salt Lake fan group, Rogue Cavaliers Brigade, paid tribute to Graves on its Instagram account Saturday. The group called Graves “our incredible and kind friend,” and urged fans of the soccer team to contribute to the GoFundMe campaign for her husband.

‘A dark spot’

Around Torrey, Dewey’s friend Ward said, people have been talking about how the violence has changed the community.

“There’s a dark spot on our community now,” she said, as people grapple with how to move forward.

But she believes the townsfolk will lean on one another, and she will see “people coming together, people holding each other, and maybe reminiscing when it’s not so raw.”

Still, she wants to hold onto the memory of her friend. Just a week before the killings, the two had dinner together — a memory, she said, is now “more precious than I could even imagine.”

Dewey, Ward said, had an “infectious” laugh and a smile that could light up a room. Now, she believes her friend is “in a better place.”

“I try not to think of the violent end,” Ward said, “because it’s too hard.”

Earl Deleeuw said Oldroyd’s love for those around her has “earned her way into heaven,” and he believes “the doors are going to be open for her.”

Burke Torgerson, the mayor of Lyman, said the close-knit nature of Wayne County’s small towns shows in how residents describe where they’re from — not by town, but by county.

“When there’s a death in the community, it affects us all,” Torgerson said. “But this is different from a regular death. It hit us very, very hard. But we are strong.”

He said county residents are like “one big community,” and the killings of the three women have left people reeling.

“It’s not to say we don’t have our problems,” Torgerson said, ”but nothing this horrific has ever happened around here.”

He added, “It’s something that we’re going to have to use their memories and their legacies as a way to move forward. And emulate that in our communities in remembrance of them. I think that’s how we’ll move on.”