Murder charges filed in six-year-old Ogden case

OGDEN — Weber County prosecutors filed murder charges Friday in connection with the May 2000 death of an Ogden man once thought to be a victim of suicide.

John Thomas Rush, then 37, was found dead inside an Ogden home, with a single gun shot wound to his head. An autopsy initially ruled the death a suicide, but new information given to police in July led police to reopen the investigation, Ogden police Sgt. Kyle Bosgieter said.

Investigators now believe Rush argued with his friend and co-worker, Merlynn David Kilfoyle, on the night he died.

On Wednesday, police arrested Kilfoyle, 27, of Ogden, and booked him into the Weber County Jail, where was being held without bail, a corrections officers said.

Weber County prosecutors on Friday charged Kilfoyle in Ogden's 2nd District Court with one count of first-degree felony murder and with a weapons enhancement, Deputy County Attorney Brenda Beaton said.

First-degree felonies are punishable by a sentence of up to life in prison. A weapons enhancement adds a consecutive sentence of one year to a conviction, Beaton said.

Bosgieter declined to give any details about how police garnered new information in the case, but said detectives traveled to Colorado to follow up leads.

He also declined to say what Rush and Kilfoyle may have argued about.

"I just don't want to discuss any motives right now," he said.

Investigators are still trying to contact Rush's family to inform them about Kilfoyle's arrest, Bosgieter said.

State court documents indicate that in June, Kilfoyle pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor criminal trespassing charge.