Alexis Rasmussen - Murdered

[barbiexo]

This article is from Oct 14^th, just so you can get a background of the case..


Alexis Rasmussen has been missing from her North Ogden town since September 10^th, and the latest leads in her case aren't making things look too positive. Now, after she's been missing for several weeks, a criminal investigation is underway into the last people who saw the young woman before she vanished.

It appears as though the mother of Alexis Rasmussen has her suspicions, but investigators say that there are no signs of foul play involved in the girl's disappearance. You see, she was last seen at the home belonging to Eric and Dea Millerberg, a couple for whom she babysat. Right now, the Millerbergs are being investigated on drug charges.

Dea and Eric Millerberg are reported to claim that the young girl left their home around midnight, and phone records indicate that she was in fact texting a boy around this time. However, sources say the young man claims to have never seen Alexis Rasmussen that night. Eric and Dea are in trouble with charges regarding illegal prescription drugs and the mother of the missing teenager says that last week their home was searched. However, it is unknown as to whether the search was regarding Alexis's disappearance, or the drug charges.

Link: http://news.gather.com/viewArticle.actio...4980574299

4 Days ago:

Body identified as that of missing Utah teen

A body found in a shallow grave belongs to a 16-year-old girl who had been missing more than a month, authorities in Utah said Saturday.

The Utah State Medical Examiner's Office confirmed through fingerprint and dental records that the body found Tuesday was that of Alexis Rasmussen, said North Ogden police spokesman Paul Rhoades. She was missing since Sept. 10.

An investigation continues into the cause of the teen's death, who might have been responsible for it and "why this tragedy occurred." Police have not named any suspects in the case nor specifically declared it a homicide.

Family members have acknowledged that Rasmussen has run away before, and police previously said they were treating the investigation as a missing person case.

A tip from a confidential informant led police to the grave site in Morgan County, a rural county north of Salt Lake City. The tip was directly related to the investigation into the girl's disappearance.

Police said the North Ogden girl was last seen when she was babysitting on Sept. 10, but she reportedly left before midnight to meet a friend.

Rhoades said officers have talked to that boy, but he said he only texted Rasmussen that night and didn't meet her.

The couple she was babysitting for have since been arrested, and the mother has been charged with two felonies for fraudulent prescriptions. Authorities have said the charges are unrelated to the disappearance of Rasmussen.

Link: http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/arti...43d3acff8b

Yesterday:

An attorney for Dea Millerberg said Wednesday he expects a homicide charge to be filed in about a month against Millerberg and her husband, Eric, in connection with the death of 16-year-old Alexis Rasmussen.

Those charges could be anything from manslaughter to capital murder, Michael Bouwhuis said shortly after being assigned to represent Dea Millerberg on prescription fraud charges unrelated to the teen’s September death.

"I’ve been told by the county attorney that charges will be coming against both of them," Bouwhuis told reporters outside a courtroom.

Bouwhuis said the exact charge was unclear since an autopsy report is pending. Weber County Attorney Dee Smith has said the medical examiner’s report may not be finished for a month or more.

Smith has called the Millerbergs persons on interest in the Rasmussen case, but attempts to reach Smith to confirm what Bouwhuis said about a homicide charge were not immediately successful.

Dea Millerberg, 38, of North Ogden, was scheduled for a preliminary hearing in 2^nd District Court on Wednesday. The hearing was continued until Nov. 16 since Bouwhuis is newly appointed. Dea Millerberg’s prescription fraud charges were filed after Rasmussen went missing. Dea Millerberg remains in the Weber County jail.

On Tuesday, a 2^nd District Court judge sent Millerberg’s husband, Eric Millerberg, 36, of North Ogden, to prison for violating his probation in a 2010 credit card fraud case.

Link:
http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/news/527826...h.html.csp

I wish I had started a thread earlier on this because when she first went missing after babysitting I immediately thought she went out for the night and got herself into trouble and was dead somewhere. When the people she was babysitting for were arrested on drug charges i still thought nothing of it because the police said the charges were unrelated. When they found her body I still didnt expect the people she babysat for. The latest article was such a twist for me I didn't see it coming at all, and now I really really wonder what happened. I think its interesting that a tip from a confidential informant led them to the body. Does that mean someone else knows what happened?

What did these people do to her!! Never babysitting again.

[Nina]

I followed this story too. Very sad.

Here are the suspects FB pages:

https://www.facebook.com/#!/profile.php?...40&sk=wall

https://www.facebook.com/#!/profile.php?...89&sk=wall

[Kip]

barbiexo - thanks for starting this thread. I had been following the case too. When she was first reported missing, I hoped she had in fact run away (not that she wouldn't be endangered in that situation as well), but because of her having previously run away, I thought LE wouldn't take her disappearance seriously.

Like you, I was surprised at the arrest of the couple Alexis babysat for - especially that it was both of them. I remember another case where the father left to drive the girl who had been babysitting home and raped and murdered her - but, of course, his wife knew nothing of it. It will be interesting to find out here what happened here that both the husband and wife would be involved in her murder.

[Jezreel]

Ogden • Through her attorney, Dea Millerberg — a North Ogden woman previously named a person of interest in the death of 16-year-old Alexis Rasmussen — has denied causing the girl’s death.

"She denies causing the death of Alexis Rasmussen. That’s all I can say," defense attorney Michael Bouwhuis told news reporters Wednesday.

Millerberg had appeared in 2^nd District Court Wednesday on a new charge of child endangerment, a third-degree felony.

Bouwhuis said the charge involves one of Millerberg’s children allegedly testing positive for exposure to drugs. The testing occurred as part of an investigation by the Division of Child and Family Services, he said.

Millerberg was previously charged with prescription fraud for alleged doctor shopping.

She will return to court Nov. 30 for a scheduling hearing on both cases. Meanwhile, she is being held at the Weber County jail in lieu of $15,000 bail.

Prosecutors, meanwhile, say they are awaiting autopsy results on Rasmussen before filing potential homicide charges against Millerberg, 38, and her husband, Eric Millerberg, 36, who both have been called "persons of interest" in the teen’s death.

Rasmussen was baby-sitting for the Millerbergs the night of Sept. 10, when she disappeared, North Ogden police have said.

After the girl’s disappearance, the Millerbergs were each arrested on unrelated charges. Eric Millerberg was arrested Oct. 3 for violating his probation, and has been returned to prison. Dea Millerberg was charged Oct. 7 with prescription fraud.

On Oct. 18, the girl’s body was found near the Weber River, within two miles of Interstate 84, according to Weber County Attorney Dee Smith. Police have said they were directed to the location by a confidential source.

Smith has said that the girl died in a house on Sept. 11 or shortly thereafter — not from natural causes — and that her body was then transported to where it was buried near I-84 in Morgan County.

http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/news/529288...l.html.csp

[Jezreel]

Ogden • Before Alexis Rasmussen’s family called to report her missing last September, the teen had already died from a drug overdose and been dumped near the Weber River by the couple she had been baby-sitting for, a prosecutor said Tuesday.

In an afternoon news conference, Weber County Attorney Dee Smith announced criminal charges had been filed against Eric and Dea Millerberg, the couple long suspected in the North Ogden teen’s death.

Eric Millerberg is charged with a first-degree felony count of child abuse homicide and felony counts of obstructing justice, unlawful sexual activity with a minor and abuse or desecration of a dead body. His wife faces one count of third-degree felony abuse or desecration of a body.

Search warrants have alleged the couple were supplying Rasmussen drugs in exchange for baby-sitting. But Smith on Tuesday declined to elaborate on many of the details of Rasmussen’s death, including who supplied the drugs that killed her and what type of drugs they were. He also declined to explain the sex charge.

"The evidence does not suggest that this was an intentional act to cause her death," Smith said of the homicide charge against Eric Millerberg.

Smith characterized Dea Millerberg’s involvement in Rasmussen’s death as "minimal."

Smith said Rasmussen’s family was briefed last week after the last of the evidence in the case had been reviewed. Attempts to reach the family Tuesday were unsuccessful.

"Now we hope to give the family closure," North Ogden Police Chief Polo Afuvai said.

http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/news/534129...a.html.csp