Kiplyn case has a murder charge

PROVO — More than 10 years after a Spanish Fork teenager disappeared without a trace, Timmy Brent Olsen was charged Thursday with her murder.

The Utah County Attorney's Office charged Olsen, 28, in the death of Kiplyn Davis, who disappeared from Spanish Fork High School on May 2, 1995.

Olsen, of Spanish Fork, is already charged with several counts of lying to an FBI agent and a federal grand jury in connection with Davis' disappearance. He now also faces a first-degree murder charge, which carries with it a possible sentence of life in prison.

"There has been a real conspiracy of silence among those individuals who have information about Kiplyn, about what happened to her and about where she is," Utah County Attorney Kay Bryson said at a press conference Thursday afternoon.

Bryson said that conspiracy has been breaking down as a result of a grand jury investigation, which in the past year has led to the federal perjury indictments for Olsen and four other men linked to Davis' disappearance.

Two of those men, Garry Blackmore, 25, and Scott Brunson, 28, have pleaded guilty to the federal charges. Olsen and two other suspects, Christopher Neal Jeppson, 28, and David Rucker Leifson, face federal trials.

One or more of those men may also face state charges, Bryson said, and he expects that additional charges will be filed against Olsen, who has been in federal custody since September.

Blackmore, who previously denied discussing Davis' disappearance with a friend, now says the friend confessed to him that he killed the teenage girl. Information released about the case appears to indicate that friend was Olsen.

A month earlier, Brunson agreed to testify against Olsen, saying he created a false alibi for Olsen. Brunson originally told police Olsen was helping him roof a shed the day Davis disappeared.

Federal officials say they have more than 70 witnesses saying Olsen and another man took Davis to a local canyon, where she was raped and killed in May 1995.

"I am surprised that the people we have identified as suspects have been able to hold the secret as long as they have," Bryson said. "I think that was accomplished in part by threats and intimidation."

Bryson declined to discuss in detail the evidence against Olsen, saying only that transcripts from the grand jury and investigative reports provided the Utah County Attorney's Office with the grounds for filing the first-degree murder charge in 4th District Court.