From Deseret News archives:
Police identify man, two young children discovered in burnt car
The victims were described by Tooele County Sheriff Frank Park as a 30-year-old man, a 4-year-old boy and a 3-year-old girl.
Their identities were not released, but investigators are in touch with the mother.
The burning vehicle was discovered at 1:28 at a gas pump at the Pony Express Station on the Goshute Indian Reservation in Skull Valley. The station is located at mile marker 11 on state Route 196.
Park said a trucker was passing through the area, saw the fire and felt a "whoosh" as he drove by. He swung his dump truck around, but by the time he returned the vehicle was completely engulfed in flames.
The trucker, who had just dropped a load of garbage at a landfill, returned to the facility where he knew there was a tanker truck filled with 2,000 gallons of water.
When the fire was extinguished, authorities discovered the bodies in the backseat of a vehicle, which appears to be an SUV.
Park said the the adult man's was positioned around the young girl's body. All three victims were positioned in somewhat strange fashion and authorities say the children were probably in car seats based on evidence at the scene.
Police are not saying if the deaths are a homicide, the result of an accident or something else.
In February, a man's body was discovered in a burning car's back seat near the Delle exit in Tooele County. Another man was apparently meant to die in the fire but escaped. He had burns over 50 percent of his body.
The 24-year-old man was found a short distance away from the car and placed into a medically-induced coma. At the time of the incident, authorities ruled the incident a homicide. The sheriff's office said there are suspects in that case, but authorities believe they have fled to Mexico. Park said the two incidents are not related.
E-mail: nhale@desnews.com
