Police call Weber inmate prime suspect in slaying

OGDEN — A man picked up for questioning in connection with the slaying of the owner of a travel agency is now being called the prime suspect by police.

Brodie Larry Spell, 21, was arrested about 9:30 p.m. Tuesday in Brigham City on two outstanding no-bail warrants for violating his probation. He was being held Wednesday in the Weber County Jail.

Originally, investigators said they just wanted to question him concerning the shooting death of Robert Warner McKay. McKay was found shot in his home early Tuesday morning. Police believed Spell was one of the last people to see McKay alive.

But after interviewing him Tuesday night, Ogden Police Lt. Scott Sangberg said Spell could now be considered the top suspect in the killing. Spell acknowledged being at McKay's house that night, Sangberg said, because he said McKay owed him money. At that point a fight ensued, he said.

As of Wednesday, charges had not been filed, but Sangberg said investigators had a little extra time to screen the case with the Weber County Attorney's Office because Spell was already being held on two unrelated warrants.

Police had been searching all Tuesday for Spell and seemed to be just one step behind him most of the day, Sangberg said.

The SWAT team raided two trailers in Pleasant View where they thought Spell might be staying. But each time they got there, Spell was already gone.

In one of the trailers however, investigators found a phone number that corresponded to an address in Brigham City, Sangberg said. About that time, detectives also developed information from a person who gave Spell a ride and dropped him off at the Smith's Food King in Brigham City, close to the address that officers discovered.

After following a trail of several apartments in Brigham City where Spell had connections, officers found the apartment where he was hiding about 9:30 p.m.

The occupants of the apartment gave police permission to enter. Officers then went immediately to a back room, where they were able to take Spell into custody before he had time to react, Sangberg said.

Investigators were still looking Wednesday for the alleged murder weapon.

McKay and his brother, Don McKay, were co-owners of McKay Travel. McKay was a distant relative of President David O. McKay, president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints from 1951 until his death in 1970. His grandfather was a cousin of President McKay's.

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