MURRAY, Utah, Feb. 19, 2023 (Gephardt Daily) — A 30-year-old man has been charged with negligent homicide and kidnapping after he told police he locked his girlfriend in a storage unit before she died there in a fire.
Alexander Wardell was arrested at 9:08 p.m. Saturday.
“I was dispatched to a structure fire with one deceased female in a storage unit,” says Wardell’s probable cause statement, filed by an officer of the Murray Police Department.
“Male arrestee stated that the female was his girlfriend. Male stated that the female was in the unit when he closed the door to the unit, putting a lock into door, and left the area on foot.
“While the male left the area the unit caught on fire and, due to the lock being in the door, the female was unable to flee from the fire. Fire investigators stated that the door remained closed until firefighters were able to open door.”
A 5:41 p.m. tweet from a Murray City Fire spokesman says a dog also died in the fire, at 4608 S. 900 East., the location of the CubeSmart self storage.
Wardell faces initial charges of kidnapping, a second-degree felony, and negligent homicide, a class A misdemeanor.
“Due to the lock being placed on the door, arrestee is being charged with negligent homicide due to the actor, acting with criminal negligence, causing the death of another individual,” the probable cause statement says.
“Arrestee is also being charged with kidnapping due to detaining an individual in circumstances exposing the individual to risk of bodily injury.”
Wardell is being held without bail in the Salt Lake County Jail system.
Why isn’t the perpetrator’s face portrayed on any of these reports? He’s a felon and a monster the world needs to know who he is. I’m sure he has mugshots, he’s been arrested more than once for violence against women, where is his face? Why is the media obscuring it? This young girl the poor victim is plastered over everything and her attacker can enjoy living in obscurity. It is a travesty.