TAYLORSVILLE, Utah — A 21-year-old man believed to have been abducted over the weekend in Taylorsville was found dead Tuesday, and two teenagers have been arrested in connection to his death.
The victim has been identified as Alexzia "Alex" Franco. Police said he was found dead Tuesday morning in a rural area of Utah County with a single gunshot wound.
Two teens, ages 15 and 17, were booked into the Salt Lake Valley Detention Center on multiple felony charges. While the teens have been taken into custody, police say they are still actively investigating the shooting. They also said there may have been a third person in the vehicle who they want to speak to. However, they said they believe one of the teens in custody was the shooter.
On Sunday, police had asked the public to keep an eye out for a white Jeep Liberty that they say was involved in the possible abduction and shooting near 3800 West and 5700 South. Witnesses said they saw Franco get into the vehicle, then heard a possible gunshot before the driver of the SUV fled at a high rate of speed.
Franco's family members have no idea why this happened.
“We are going to get to the bottom of all of this,” Shellie Kilpatrick, his grandmother, said at a vigil Tuesday night. “We’re going to make sure whoever did this to you will pay for the rest of their lives. This has affected a lot of people.”
“What did he do so wrong that give somebody the right to think they could take his life and take him away from his family?” said Sherry Bennett, Franco's aunt. “What could he have possibly done? And why?”
His family members will remember him as an athletic, cheerful man with a big heart, and they won’t give up on making sure justice is served to the ones who took his life.
