Utah : Kimberly Evans

Written By Navigating Advocacy Podcast

When someone mentions Utah, one of two pictures flash through my mind. The Delicate Arch of Moab’s Arches National Park and the mountain lined skyline of Salt Lake City. A small suburb sits just 25 miles south of Salt Lake and shares that same Rocky backdrop. This week we are navigating advocacy in Herriman, Utah. 


Herriman was considered a fourth class town before the year 2000 when it was incorporated. I had not heard of a fourth class city before but it is when there are less than 10,000 people residing there. Since 2000, Herriman has had a population boom! Reporting in over 55,000 residents in the 2020 census. There is a replica of the house from Disney’s UP in Herriman. 


Usually where more people live, the higher the crime. Herriman defies this trend, establishing itself as a haven of safety surpassing 49% of comparable municipalities. The probability of falling prey to a violent crime stands at an impressive one in 1,323 individuals, marking a remarkable 45% dip below the national average.

There have been zero reported homicides in the last year in Herriman according to neighborhood scout dot com. Unfortunately that was not the case in 1994. 


Kimberly Arbon was by definition a girly-girl. She loved to shop, had beautiful dark hair and would talk to her sister, Kelly, on the phone for hours about what talk shows they had watched or what to make for lunch. Kimberly and Kelly were best friends. 


Kimberly married the love of her life Mark Evans in 1991 and the two settled down in Sandy, Utah. Sandy is 15 miles east of Herriman. They built a life together and had two children, one daughter and one son. By all accounts Kimberly was thriving. She loved being a mom, traveling with her family and being outdoors. 


September of 1993 changed the family’s world forever when her 2 year old daughter died after having an allergic reaction to an aspirin. Her death triggered depression in Kimberly.  

According to the National Library of Medicine, unexpected death of a loved one is common and associated with subsequent elevations in symptoms of multiple forms of psychopathology. Unexpected death is the most common traumatic experience to see the onset of common anxiety, mood, and substance disorders. 


Medical professionals have observed major depressive episodes, panic disorders and post traumatic stress disorder increase after a person experiences an unexpected death of a loved one. 


In 1994, treatments for depression weren’t as widely available as they are today. The stigmas surrounding therapy and seeking medical help for depression weren’t as sought after. The use of antidepressants did dramatically increase in the 1990s but not quite as much as it did in the 2000s.  

Kimberly sought other ways to help her cope with depression. She attended a grief support group, spoke with other parents who had experienced the same pain. She also began self medicating with cocaine. Kimberly’s mother knew she was struggling with this being her coping mechanism and had spoken with Kimberly about how she was trying to step away from the drug. 


On her daughter’s birthday in November 1993, Kimberly had been doing well. She hosted a small party celebrating. Had a Barney the purple dinosaur cake and released balloons at her gravesite. Kelly said Kimberly stood and watched until the balloons were completely out of sight. She also shared that Kimberly had purchased a specific candle that she would only light on special occasions to honor her daughter. Kelly said she had noticed an uptick in Kimberly’s mood and had a fun family christmas. It seemed as if the counseling and bereavement groups were helping. 


January 15, 1994, was a brisk winter day. The high reached 47 degrees and the wind was blowing 14 mph. Kelly called in for her daily chat to Kimberly but was told she wasn’t home and that she had gone to see a friend. Kelly didn’t know that she would never again have that daily call with her sister.


Butterfield Canyon is a well known area that has many hikers, dog walkers, and joggers frequent just outside of Herriman.  Large herds of deer roam the mountainside and people have reported finding fossils including coral in the canyon. 


A hunter green Jeep Cherokee was reported to authorities as a possible suicide parked in front of the locked Kennecott gate entrance to the canyon. A woman with multiple gunshot wounds was slumped over in the front seat. 


When authorities arrived around 4:30pm, they discovered that Kimberly Evans had been shot six times and a struggle seemed evident. No weapon was found at the scene. 


Early investigations yielded few results. They put out a call to action from the public. After all, Kimberly's vehicle was found off of a busy road in broad daylight. Sheriff’s spokesman Rod Norton noted that there was a vehicle passing every one to two minutes. They asked for anyone to call in if they were in the area between noon and 5pm. The Bingham Canyon Mine is located just off the Kennecott Access road. The possibility that a mine worker traveling to or from a shift could narrow the window of arrival for Kimberly or perhaps they saw or heard something was high. 

As with most investigations, law enforcement reaches out to family and begins piecing together any information they can muster. They called Mark in for an interview and seemed to have grilled him pretty hard based on the articles I read.


All initial evidence led law enforcement to believe Kimberly had planned on meeting someone there at Butterfield Canyon. 


That same weekend that Kimberly was murdered, there was a surprising uptick in deaths when you surveyed the greater Salt Lake City area. Salt Lake City’s crime statistics are a stark contrast to Herriman. On neighborhood scout. Salt Lake’s total crime index states they are safer than 0% of US neighborhoods. Yes they sit at a ZERO. Your chance of becoming a victim of violent crime is 1 in 100. Property crimes are even worse at 1 in 14. 

By Monday, January 17, 1994, 5 people had died. Kimberly as well as an 18 year old Jeremy Gaitin. He had been stabbed 5 times allegedly by a 14 year old rival gang member.  24 year old Danny Gibson was shot when he kicked in the front door of an apartment of a man he had ongoing issues with. And Two women were killed by a drunk driver as they walked across a street. 


Clearly there aren’t any connections between these crimes outside of the dates they occurred in the same weekend. 

A search warrant was executed on a known drug dealer that had a connection to Kimberly. There were some lead particles that could be linked to gunshot residue found on him not long after the murder. One article reported that this person also may have been in possession of nude photos of Kimberly. I couldn’t corroborate this information but could see how it could be used as leverage for something. 

By March, investigators were not any closer to solving Kimberly’s murder than day one. They seemed confident that they just needed one piece of evidence and started trying to connect other murders or gun related crimes to Kimberly’s case. One man was charged in a murder at a nearby Payless Shoe store. He was a former firefighter and EMT named Michael DeCorso. There were some connections between DeCorso and Kimberly. He lived in the same county at the time of her death and he had owned a few guns that could potentially be the murder weapon. 


Detectives had ballistic testing performed on DeCorso’s guns hoping to secure more evidence in Kimberly and one other murder victim’s case. Unfortunately, ballistics didn’t match. 


Detective Todd Park took over Kimberly’s case in the early 2000s and when he has spoken about it he describes it very vividly. He brings it up regularly hoping to keep interest alive. He has mentioned that he would like to speak to Mark again but Mark has no interest in meeting with him. The initial interview with law enforcement seems to have done a number on him. 

Det. Park has also been quoted as saying he needs just a little bit more to “put the case over the top” and that they could make an arrest. 


Kimberly’s mom is hoping for a resolution to her daughter’s murder but has continued on with life. She spends time with her grandson and with her other grandkids. Kelly paid tribute to her best friend and named her daughter after Kimberly. 

I’m asking anyone that may have been in the Herriman Utah or Butterfield Canyon vicinity in January of 1994 to please contact the Salt Lake County Sheriff’s Office. If you also have heard anyone speaking about Kimberly, regardless of how small or insignificant you may feel the information is, please call 801.743.5850.

Navigating Advocacy Podcast

Whitney and Melissa, hosts of Navigating Advocacy, blend their true crime interests with a mission to spark justice through storytelling, inspiring action, and building a community of advocates.

https://www.navigatingadvocacy.com
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