Accident? Uncle sure nephew was slain

Time passes uneasily for Eli Herrera. The reason is prominently displayed in the back of his car. Posted at both corners of the rear window are matching fliers, each bearing a picture of his nephew, Caleb, and offers of "Up to $4,000" in reward money for information about the circumstances surrounding Caleb Herrera's death.

Caleb looks innocent in the flier, wearing the carefree face of a 14-year-old. But he was anything but carefree at midday on Sept. 19, 2003 — the day his life was snuffed out by a bullet to his head.

Police investigators who responded to the scene ruled the shooting as accidental, concluding that the fatal shot was inflicted by Caleb himself when he was fooling around with guns in a relative's house on the west side of Salt Lake City on a day he should have been in school.

Eli believes otherwise. He believes someone else shot his nephew and the scene was rearranged to suggest an accident by the time police arrived.

Uncle Eli doesn't use the term "homicide" loosely. He says he has evidence, mountains of it, to back him up. For the past 10 months he has talked to people who had contact with Caleb that morning, he has scrutinized the 911 tapes from two calls made by Caleb's 13-year-old friend who heard the gunshots and called police, he has exhaustively analyzed the crime scene evidence and the police reports.

His discoveries haven't always been pleasant. He says he has learned that his nephew, though only 14, was involved in a lot of things he shouldn't have been involved in, and that, not coincidentally, he ran with a rough crowd. The gun that killed Caleb was among several found in the room that were stolen.

But as unsavory as the details are of Caleb's rebel lifestyle, Eli says they only heighten the case for murder and lengthen the list of possible suspects.

---

The police haven't turned a completely deaf ear to Eli's pleas. In January, four months after the shooting, the Salt Lake City Police Department officially reopened the investigation into Caleb Herrera's death. In March, the case was turned over to the District Attorney's Office for further consideration.

But while the case is not closed, Eli says nothing progressive has happened. Day after day, he sits and impatiently waits for the police to start questioning the people he has questioned, to administer polygraph tests, to check alibis, to professionally analyze those 911 tapes that, he says, reveal many crime scene secrets.

Until then, he won't rest. He can't rest. Not with his sister's son dead and a cloud over the circumstances.