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ROOSEVELT — A Roosevelt woman had been brutally killed before investigators discovered her body hidden under items in the back seat of her car, new court documents indicate.
After being held against her will, Kimberly Hyde, 60, was bound, stabbed and slashed multiple times and left hidden in her car to die, according to an arrest warrant issued for her next-door neighbor, Henry Cito Piano Resuera, Jr., 37.
Resuera was charged on Oct. 13 with aggravated murder, aggravated kidnapping, aggravated robbery and aggravated burglary, all first-degree felonies. A warrant was issued for his arrest but it was kept under seal until Friday to give authorities time to look for him.
Investigators believe Resuera fled the country to the Philippines after killing Hyde.
Hyde was last seen in Roosevelt about 2:30 p.m. on Oct. 7 and was reported missing along with her 2014 Honda Civic later that night. The next day, her body was found inside her car in Vernal.
After finding the vehicle and before entering, detectives looked in the windows and could see "the back seat was filled with items that Kimberly's husband had reported missing from their residence" and it appeared "that the items seemed to be contoured in a way that indicated a body may be underneath these items," the charges state.
Investigators entered the vehicle after obtaining a search warrant and found Hyde's body in the back seat under the items. She was "bound on multiple points of her body which would have restricted her movement while she was alive," according to the charges.
An autopsy found blunt force trauma to Hyde's face, eight stab wounds on her body that were determined to be superficial, and three larger and deeper wounds on her neck that "appeared to show much more manipulation in a sawing ... motion of the weapon" in an apparent attempt to ensure the death of the victim, the charges state.
As detectives retraced Hyde's footsteps, they learned that she and a friend left her house to run errands between noon and 2 p.m. on that day. At 2:07 p.m., Resuera, the Hydes' neighbor, is recorded on a surveillance camera walking toward the Hyde home, the charges state.
At 2:30 p.m., Hyde returned home. At 2:47 p.m., Hyde sent a text message and her friend is seen on video leaving her home, police wrote in the arrest warrant. At 3:10 p.m., "a text message is sent from Kimberly's phone telling a friend, 'I have to to go to Vernal again."
Investigators later determined that by 5:38 p.m., Hyde's car was in the area where her body was found the next day.
Three days later, on Oct. 10, a witness contacted police saying he had been talking with Resuera's son, who "stated he had to drive his father, Henry Resuera, to the airport for a family emergency the night before," according to charging documents. When detectives served a search warrant on Resuera's house on Oct. 11, they reported finding what appeared to be blood on the driveway.
"ln interviewing Henry Resuera's wife and son, they admitted that Henry had disclosed to them that he had killed Kimberly Hyde. They were both able to provide details of Kimberly's death that had not been made publicly available," the charges state.
The wife and son also said they were afraid of Resuera and talked about prior domestic violence incidents that were not reported to police, court documents state. The son told investigators that he was told to meet up with his father in Naples on Oct. 7. His father, who was wearing a ball cap, a face mask and gloves, was allegedly driving Hyde's car.
The son then followed his father to Vernal where Hyde's vehicle was later found. The son then drove his father back to Roosevelt. During that time, the son said his father confessed to killing Hyde, and the two made several stops on the way home so Resuera could dispose of evidence at different locations, according to the charges. Police say based on information from the son, they were able to find those items.
"The son stated he was later tasked with driving Henry to the airport in Salt Lake City where (the father) flew to the Philippines, " the charges say.
When police issued a statement announcing that Resuera was wanted in connection with Hyde's death, investigators said a "juvenile suspect" had also been arrested. The charging documents do not indicate if that person is Resuera's son, but Hyde's husband, Michael Hyde, confirmed that the son had been arrested. As of Wednesday, no formal charges had been filed against him.
Funeral services for Hyde will be held Friday at the Roosevelt Stake Center, 447 E. Lagoon Street. A viewing is scheduled for Thursday.
