Was Kiplyn killed with flashlight?

New information on the disappearance and murder of 15-year-old Kiplyn Davis was revealed in a federal hearing on Thursday.

In a final motion hearing before Timmy Brent Olsen is to face a three-week trial starting next week on charges that he lied to a federal grand jury and investigators about his involvement in Davis' disappearance, U.S. Attorney Criminal Division Chief Richard Lambert said an investigating grand jury had heard evidence that Davis may have been beaten to death with a flashlight.

This new piece of information may carry significance in the upcoming trial as federal prosecutors plan to have a woman testify that after Davis' disappearance, Olsen beat her on the head with a flashlight when she confronted him about his involvement in Davis' disappearance.

In fact, Lambert said the prosecution plans to have several women testify, including a former wife of Olsen, who are expected to describe being victims of rape and other violence at Olsen's hands. Prosecutors plan to paint Olsen as a man who has a history of being violent toward women. Lambert said one woman says Olsen punched her in the stomach when she rebuffed his sexual advances and then drove her to a location up Spanish Fork Canyon, where he raped her.

Olsen is charged with 16 counts of lying to an FBI agent and perjury before a grand jury. Federal prosecutors say they plan to call as many as 70 witnesses next week, some who will testify about hearing Olsen confess to taking Davis up a nearby canyon from Spanish Fork High School on the day she disappeared, May 2, 1995, and also confessing to killing her. Investigators have said they believe Davis was beaten, raped, killed and her body buried in an unmarked location.

In court Thursday, U.S. District Judge Thomas Greene denied several motions filed by Olsen's defense attorney, Stephen McCaughey, including a motion to throw out charges. Greene did dismiss one count, but only because he said it was redundant with another count. Greene also denied a motion to sever the case into two trials.

Outside of court, McCaughey declined to comment on the judge's decision to deny almost all of the seven motions he filed on the eve of trial.

Davis' father, Richard Davis, said he was happy with the outcome of the hearing, adding it is going to be very difficult spending the next three weeks sitting in the same room with the man accused of brutally killing his daughter. Olsen also faces a pending murder charge in state court for Davis' death. Davis called the federal perjury trial, scheduled to begin on the 10-year anniversary of his daughter's disappearance, a "blessing."

"We're going to be strong and we've got to go through it," Davis said of he and his wife, Tamara. "We've been waiting a long time."

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