Deseret News
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Salt Lake County Jail
Police and prosecutors had at least three opportunities following the April 3, 1985, rape of Joyce Yost to prevent the man who had sexually assaulted her from making good on his threat to return and take her life.
Breakdowns in communication between multiple individuals, agencies and Utah’s courts allowed the suspect, Douglas Anderson Lovell, to repeatedly leave custody before he at last returned to Yost’s apartment and killed her.
Lovell has spent the last 35 years in prison and faces the death penalty for killing Yost days before she was to testify against him in court. Yost’s body has never been located.