PROVO, Utah, June 24, 2021 (Gephardt Daily) — A jury has returned a guilty verdict in the 1988 murder of Spanish Fork resident Peggy Sue Case, whose body was recovered in 2017, discovered buried beneath a storage shed associated with the house she had shared with boyfriend Michael Ignatius Kufrin.
On Wednesday evening, a jury found Kufrin guilty of a single count of first-degree murder.
Kufrin had long been a suspect in the case after the woman’s disappearance, but the case went cold after her remains could not be located.
The investigation heated up again in spring of 2017 when the then-resident of Case’s former Spanish Fork home, at 80 N. 800 East, decided to dig up the depressed area in the shed floor before moving out. The man discovered skeletal remains with teeth that were ultimately matched to Case’s dental records.
With evidence from the original investigation that started back in July of 1988 and evidence from the investigation after the remains were found, investigators drafted an affidavit in support of an arrest warrant for Kufrin, which was approved by a judge. He was extradited from Illinois to Utah.
Case had been reported missing by her co-workers at a Medford explosives plant on July 15, 1988. She was 27 at the time she went missing. She was last seen at a party in Payson, at which she and Kufrin had been arguing.
Kufrin’s sentencing has been set for July 20.
