SALT LAKE CITY, Utah, Nov. 24, 2016 (Gephardt Daily) — A fifth suspect has been arrested in the kidnapping and murder of Jason Nakonechni, a 38-year-old man whose body was identified Wednesday after being discovered in the Tooele County desert.
In a statement released Thursday night, the Salt Lake City Police Department said Rodney Maxwell had been taken into custody without incident at a motel in Garden City, Idaho.
He joins four others who have already been arrested and charged in the case, which police say started with a plan by Marilee Joan Borden, Corey Lee Petersen, Michael Shaine Snyder and Allison Wells to rob and kidnap Nakonechni on Sept. 4, 2016.
In a probable cause statement filed in Third District Court, Salt Lake City police detectives said the deadly trap was sprung when one of the suspects texted Nakonechni and arranged to meet him at a local motel room “for the purpose of luring him there to be assaulted and kidnapped by at least three other persons.”
“When the victim entered the motel room occupied by Wells and another woman, he was immediately assaulted by Wells, her boyfriend and another man who were lying in wait,” the probable cause statement said.
During the attack, according to the statement, Nakonechni was brutally beaten, suffering “major blood loss and the loss of several teeth.”
He tried to escape, but was unsuccessful.
The victim was then taken against his will to a location in the Salt Lake Valley, where the assault continued. It was there, according to police, that Nakonechni was robbed of his car, dog and money and then taken to a remote location and killed.
On Sept. 5, police found Nakonechni’s abandoned vehicle on fire.
He was officially reported missing Sept. 18, when his mother called police.
Borden, Petersen, and Snyder were arrested over the last two weeks and charged with first-degree felony aggravated kidnapping, among other charges, with bail set at $1 million for each.
Wells, who was apprehended Tuesday night, faces charges of aggravated murder, aggravated kidnapping and aggravated robbery.
Gephardt Daily will have more on this developing story as information becomes available.
