Leads are scarce in deadly car fire

A car fire that killed one man and seriously injured another may have been a murder attempt over drugs, Tooele County authorities said.

"We're still following leads as they come in, but they peter out and go nowhere," Tooele County Sheriff's Chief Deputy Duke North told the Deseret Morning News on Monday. "There's not much cooperation from anybody that knows anything."

In February, Oscar Botello's body was found in the backseat of a burning SUV that was parked in the desert near I-80 and the Delle exit. Botello, 29, was a Mexican immigrant who also went by the name Arturo Levya.

About 50 feet from the burning car, deputies found Julio Caesar Garcia Rodriguez, 24. He suffered burns on more than 50 percent of his body and was hospitalized in a medically-induced coma.

On Monday, North said Rodriguez had since been released from the hospital and had gone back to Mexico. Other leads that police have been pursuing have also dried up, and deputies continue to plead for tips. Anyone with information on the case is asked to call the Tooele County Sheriff's Office at 435-882-5600.

Meanwhile, deputies have concluded the deaths of a man and his two children were likely a murder-suicide.

In August, Christopher Jessop and his two children — 4-year-old James and 3-year-old Mariah — were found in the back of a burning Jeep parked at a gas station on the Skull Valley Goshute Indian Reservation.

Autopsies concluded the three died of burns and smoke inhalation. North said Jessop, 30, was in the process of a divorce from his wife and did not want her to have custody of their children.

"I don't know why you'd want to do that to kids," he said.

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E-mail: bwinslow@desnews.com