The University of Utah student shot and killed Monday at the mouth of Red Butte Canyon was not alone in the car that night, police said Wednesday.
A female friend of ChenWei Guo’s was in the car with the man when 24-year-old Austin Jeffrey Boutain allegedly shot and killed him, University Police Chief Dale Brophy said. The woman, also a student at the U., requested that police not identify her publicly.
The woman was “very traumatized” and had a difficult time describing what happened to investigators “due to the amount of shock she was in,” Brophy said.
In an interview with Boutain, who was captured at the Salt Lake City library just before 1 p.m. Tuesday, the man admitted to killing 23-year-old Guo with the intention of taking possession of the student’s vehicle, police documents say.
Boutain told officers he also fired two rounds at the woman as she ran away from the scene “with the intent to kill her so there were no witnesses,” documents say.
The woman’s story gave officers “very limited details,” Brophy said, but they unraveled more about Monday night’s events when they arrived at the scene and interviewed Boutain the next day.
Boutain, 24, of Mississippi, was booked into the Salt Lake County jail Tuesday night after answering questions from police and leading them to a campsite where he’d stayed over the weekend with his wife, 23-year-old Kathleen Boutain.
He is being held on suspicion of aggravated murder, along with several other potential charges.
News outlets in Alabama and Ohio report that Boutain’s criminal history includes charges involving public disturbances, theft, evading police, drug-related charges and a sex offense.
In his interview with U. police, Boutain admitted to stealing three guns from a home in Colorado, one of which was a rifle recovered by police in their foothills search for Boutain, documents say. A second firearm, a .38 caliber Smith and Wesson, he told police, had been traded for an ounce of marijuana.
He hid the third weapon, a .44-caliber Ruger believed to have been used to kill Guo, in a crevice of a brick wall near the Salt Lake City homeless shelter, Boutain said. He told police that when he returned to retrieve the weapon, it wasn’t there.
When Boutain led police to a makeshift camp in Red Butte Canyon above the university, detectives found the holster for the Ruger, as well as six spent .44-caliber cartridges.
Police have not released the number of times Guo was shot. Brophy said Wednesday that the medical examiner was still compiling his report of the autopsy.
Guo was an international student from China at the U. The university canceled classes Tuesday in light of the tragedy and lowered flags to half-staff Wednesday in Guo’s memory. Spokesman Chris Nelson said the flags would remain at half-staff until sunset Friday.
Boutain is also accused of assaulting and injuring Kathleen Boutain with a firearm in the canyon, documents say.
On Monday night about 8:15 p.m., Kathleen Boutain reported the assault to U. police. As police were taking the report on the domestic violence incident, they learned that Guo had been shot and killed, shortly before 9 p.m.
During her interview with police, Kathleen Boutain told police she and Austin Boutain had traveled to Utah in a stolen vehicle with stolen firearms, documents say.
Kathleen Boutain, of Alabama, was booked Monday night into the Salt Lake County jail, where she was being held in lieu of $25,000 on suspicion of theft by receiving stolen property and drug possession charges. Police said she had a prescription bottle of generic Ambien, which was not labeled, and other drug paraphernalia.
The Boutains have been labeled as “persons of interest” in a homicide investigation out of Golden, Colo. Police there found the owner of the stolen pickup truck the Boutains allegedly drove to Utah dead in his mobile home early this week after Utah authorities contacted them.
“Preliminary investigations indicate that [63-year-old Mitchell Bradford Ingle] had been deceased for a few days,” a Tuesday release from the Golden police department said, and his body had obvious signs of trauma.
Police have been unable to locate the stolen vehicle thus far, which is described as a green 2000 Ford pickup truck with Colorado plates.
Golden police arrived in Utah on Tuesday, Brophy confirmed, as part of their investigation.