SOUTH SALT LAKE, Utah — One man is dead and his 70-year-old friend in police custody following a stabbing early Wednesday morning in South Salt Lake.
The incident is shaping up to be a very sad story, apparently rooted in mental illness, possibly chronic alcoholism and a friend trying to do the right thing.
Just after 6:00 a.m., a man who lives in the area called 911 to report that the 70-year-old suspect was walking around outside his apartment building, claiming that he had stabbed someone.
South Salt Lake officers were on scene within minutes. They located a man stabbed to death inside an apartment and took the 70-year-old man into custody without incident.
Police say the two were not strangers.
“They were acquaintances, they were friends, they were associates,” said Danielle Croyle with the South Salt Lake Police Department.
It appears as though the victim was not only a friend but possibly an emergency contact in the event there was some sort of mental health issue with the suspect.
This all began to play out late Tuesday night when somebody called in a welfare check on the 70-year-old man who is now the prime suspect in the homicide.
“There was a mental health wellness check last night that took place with the suspect, officers,” Croyle said. “The victim came over to be the support person for the suspect.”
The names of both the suspect and the man he allegedly stabbed to death have not been released yet.
A couple neighbors told FOX 13 the suspect is pretty well known in the neighborhood for often being intoxicated and wandering around the streets and appearing to be angry.
