WEST VALLEY CITY, Utah, June 16, 2022 (Gephardt Daily) — A Kearns man has been arrested in connection with the October 2021 shooting death of an 82-year-old man near his West Valley City home.
West Valley City police Tuesday confirmed that Noel Munoz Lopez has been arrested for investigation of murder in the Oct. 4, 2021, death of Farrell Bartschi near 3800 South and 4200 West. No other details about Lopez’s arrest were immediately available.
Lopez had been on the run since being named as a person of interest in Bartschi’s death, police said.
Police were alerted to gunshots at 7:10 a.m. the morning Bartschi was shot. The caller also reported seeing a man lying on the ground. The man was unresponsive when officers arrived. Despite life-saving efforts, Bartschi was pronounced dead at the scene, police said.
Interviews and evidence suggested Lopez had been in the area at the time of the shooting, according to West Valley City police.
Police say Lopez knows people who live in front of the house where Bartschi’s body was found. Bartschi also lived in the neighborhood, police said.
