SALT LAKE CITY – More than three months after a woman was found dead inside a Salt Lake City hotel room, police have confirmed that a suspect has been arrested in connection with the case.
Salt Lake City Police Department officials said they arrested 35-year-old Jeffrey Allen Skog for the murder of 34-year-old Holly Nicole Carges, who was found dead at the Royal Garden Inn on July 17.
Police initially said they considered the death suspicious but then quickly announced they were investigating the death as a homicide. According to a press release from Salt Lake City police, investigators secured a warrant Friday afternoon around 2 p.m. and arrested him a short time later in the area of 250 West 500 South.
Skog has been booked into the Salt Lake County Jail and faces the following charges, all of which are first-degree felonies: murder, aggravated kidnapping, aggravated burglary and aggravated robbery.
"The DNA was a big factor in the time that it took to have enough probable cause to make the arrest," said Detective Dennis McGowan of the Salt Lake City Police Department.
According to the Declaration of Probable Cause, “Ms. Carges hands were bound behind her back with her belt, her pants were slightly down and the zipper on her pants was broken…Skogs DNA profile matched the DNA profile identified on the ends of Ms. Carges’ belt, her zipper, and under her fingernails.”
Skog’s bail is set in the warrant at $1,000,007, according to the press release.
Friends of the woman spoke to FOX 13 News after the murder occurred, saying they don’t know how Carges could have wound up in the hotel room. None of the friends or family FOX 13 News spoke with even heard of Jeffrey Skog before this investigation.
“I don’t know why she would have been at that hotel,” said Tammy Coles, who is the sister of Carges’ longtime boyfriend, in the days following the murder. “She’s not that type of person. She’s not that type of girl.”
Salt Lake City police said the victim and the suspect were acquaintances but could not go into any more detail.
CJ Mullins, Carges’ common law husband and father of her son, said the last three months have been an emotional roller coaster for the entire family.
"There is not a day that goes by that none of us don't think about her,” Mullins said. “I went from ball mode, to kill mode, to over analyzing, trying to figure out how she got into this predicament."
Mullins did say getting the news that there was an arrest was a great relief.
“I wanted to do cartwheels; I wanted to scream, because it is a form of closure knowing the person responsible for this is in custody,” Mullins said.
