Mother of murdered 10-year-old finally feels some peace

SALT LAKE CITY — When 10-year-old Anna Palmer was killed in September 1998, it seemed as if one minute she was alive and the next she wasn't.

Neighborhood girls had seen Anna walking home from a friend's house just 15 or 30 minutes before her mother came home from work to find her dead on their own front porch.

It was clear what had killed her — she had been stabbed five times in the neck — but there was no clue as to who had done it.

And there wasn't for years.

On Friday, the man charged years later with her death — Matthew John Breck — pleaded guilty to aggravated murder, a first-degree felony, and was immediately sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole by 3rd District Judge Judith Atherton.

A month after Anna died, police and volunteers handed out fliers, incredulous that no one on busy 300 East had witnessed the slaying.

In 2009, DNA evidence led police to Breck, and charges were finally filed in 2010.

The girl's mother, Nancy Palmer, has rarely granted interviews but often thanked members of the public for their concern and expressed her wish to see the case resolved.

Outside the courtroom Friday, she thanked police and prosecutors who worked on the case.

"It's been a long time coming," Nancy Palmer said. "Hopefully now we can get past her death to the good things."

As difficult as it was to hear Breck admit to brutalizing her daughter, Palmer said she felt some peace in the finality of his sentence.

"It's good to know," she said. "Instead of thinking about it, wondering, now we have, at least, some answers. … The most important thing is that justice was done. (Breck) was held accountable and will be held for the rest of his life."

Palmer didn't speak to the judge Friday. Prosecutor Vince Meister said the family's thoughts were captured in a five-page letter that was given to Atherton, but he assured the judge they were "very satisfied" with the outcome.

"I think it's a good resolution," Meister said after the hearing. "It's a resolution (the family) was happy with. Since day one, they wanted to see that Matthew Breck would never get out and hurt another little girl."