OGDEN, Utah — An Ogden homicide that went unsolved for nearly three decades finally found a resolution after a longtime suspect recently confessed to the murder.
The Ogden Police Department announced Thursday that it had resolved the 1997 murder of Richard Billmayer following an investigation that extended all the way to Iowa.
Billmayer was first reported missing in 2008, but detectives later learned that he hadn't been seen since 1997.
Despite an investigation that involved locating and then interviewing several witnesses, the department said there was "insufficient evidence" to solve the case, which soon went cold.
However, in 2019, a detective reopened the investigation and followed up with new interviews, before traveling to Iowa to interview Richard Annis, who was in prison for an unrelated homicide.
Although the case was strengthened following the Annis interview, it still remained unresolved until, in 2025, the Cold Case Coalition took up its own investigation into identified Billmayer’s death.
With the new attention brought to the case by the coalition, it was able to provide additional research to Ogden police detectives who determined to interview Annis again.
During the second interview at the Iowa State Penitentiary, "Annis admitted responsibility for Billmayer’s death and provided information that corroborated significant details autonomously developed by investigators and witnesses during the investigation," Ogden police said.
