Draper • On the night 15-year-old Anne Kasprzak secretly slipped out of her home, her boyfriend told the girl's mother he did not know where she was.
Three days after Kasprzak's battered body was found in 2012 in the Jordan River, the then-14-year-old denied seeing her in the hours before her death or being at the crime scene.
But authorities say they have evidence refuting those claims — a court document alleges cell phone records show the boyfriend was close to the crime scene and that a piece of paper found in his trash can contained notes about the case, including a description of a jacket Kasprzak was wearing that night.
And on Thursday, Draper police announced the boyfriend, now 17, has been arrested in the girl's slaying.
Police Chief Bryan Roberts disclosed few details about the suspect — who lived in Utah at the time of Kasprzak's death and is described in a charging document as the girl's boyfriend — because he is a juvenile. But at an afternoon news conference, Roberts said the teen was arrested in Grand Junction, Colo., and is awaiting extradition to Utah.
The Salt Lake County District Attorney's Office has filed charges of first-degree felony murder and second-degree felony obstruction of justice against the teen.
The Salt Lake Tribune generally does not name juvenile defendants unless they have been certified to stand trial as an adult.
District Attorney Sim Gill said that because of the seriousness of the allegations, "we're going to pursue every option available to us" in juvenile court.
Veronica Kasprzak, Anne's mother, said at the news conference that she felt overwhelmed when she learned an arrest was imminent.
"It does not change what happened," Kasprzak said, adding she is hopeful that once the criminal justice process is over, she can focus on memories of her daughter instead of the details of how she died.
Earlier Thursday, Kasprzak's stepfather, James Bratcher, said he and his wife still don't know much about what happened the night his stepdaughter died, but he is confident Draper police arrested the person responsible.
When asked what emotions he felt Thursday morning, Bratcher didn't know how to answer. "It's been a really rough two years, going on three now," he said.
Kasprzak's severely beaten, initially unrecognizable body was found March 11, 2012, the day after the Riverton girl was reported missing by her family. One of her sneakers, with blood spattered on it, was found near a footbridge at 12600 South in Draper, not far from where her remains were retrieved.
Within a few weeks of the discovery of the girl's body, Draper police arrested two men, both ex-cons with criminal records that included drug and weapons violations. But after a year-long investigation, detectives cleared them both, saying a witness — who had claimed to see them knock the girl unconscious and drive off with her body — was a drug addict who made up the story to get back at the men.
Neither was ever formally charged in Kasprzak's death; both were being held at the time on unrelated charges.
Police did not say why it took a year and a half after the original suspects were cleared to arrest the 17-year-old and referred questions to the DA's Office.
Gill said the leads that investigators pursued at the beginning eventually were determined "not to be substantive" so they renewed the investigation. He praised the "great police work" that led to the charges.
"The Draper Police Department really needs to be commended for going back to square one and reworking this case," Gill said. "It took a little bit of time, but all of the pieces of the puzzle came together."
A probable cause statement filed in 3rd District Juvenile Court lays out some of the evidence against the teen.
It says Kasprzak's phone records show numerous calls to and from the defendant between 7 and 8:30 on the night of her disappearance. After 8:30 p.m., he never called Kasprzak again, according to the statement.
Police spoke to the defendant a few days after Kasprzak's body was found and asked for the shoes he was wearing. He told officers that Kasprzak had a bloody nose two weeks before at the home of one of his friends and that some of the blood dropped onto his left shoelace, the probable cause statement says.
"The defendant denied being at the Jordan River or seeing Anne the night of March 10, 2012," the statement says.
During an interview with officers, the friend at first said Kasprzak had a bloody nose at his house, the statement says. After officers located a text on the friend's phone from the defendant asking him to tell police the bloody nose story, the friend admitted he had lied, the statement says.
The friend also said the defendant told him he had been at the Jordan River that night but not to tell anyone and also instructed him to erase the messages on his phone, according to the statement.
"The defendant's shoes were tested and human blood was located in multiple areas on both shoes," the statement says. "Further testing on the human blood on both shoes yielded a DNA profile which matches the DNA profile of Anne Kasprzak."
In addition, officers reassembled a piece of shredded paper they found in the defendant's trash can that contained notes "with facts about the case, a rough time line, and a line describing a jacket 'she' was wearing 'that night,' " the probable cause statement says. It says Kasprzak's mother confirmed a jacket her daughter owned that matched the description was missing.
The probable cause statement also says Veronica Kasprzak called the defendant at 9:01 p.m. March 10, 2012, while trying to locate her daughter. The boyfriend said he had not seen the girl and did not know where she was, the statement says. It says an analysis of cell tower data and other information show the defendant was within 100 meters of the crime scene.
At Thursday's news conference, Roberts said his department had worked tirelessly to identify Kasprzak's murderer.
"We are encouraged at the prospect of justice," the chief said. "Justice for Anne, for the life she was deprived, justice of grieving parents who have lost their child, and justice for family and friends who have lost so much, and mourn Anne's absence each day."
The family had issued a $5,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of Kasprzak's killer or killers.
Nate Carlisle contributed to this report.
pmanson@sltrib.com
Twitter: @PamelaMansonSLC
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