Police: Remains of mother and 3-year-old son recovered in Utah desert

Steve Griffin, Deseret News

As part of a plea bargain with prosecutors, Christopher Poulson agreed to help investigators find his victims.

EUREKA, Juab County — Remains believed to be those of a 23-year-old woman and her young son have been recovered in the central Utah desert four years after her boyfriend killed them.

In a search that began Friday, crews found Emily Quijano Almiron and her 3-year-old son Gabriel in a shallow grave about 5 miles south of Eureka, Orem police confirmed Monday. The discovery comes roughly a month after Christopher Poulson admitted he had fatally injured the boy and then panicked and shot Almiron as she slept in 2015.

As part of a plea bargain with prosecutors, the 30-year-old Poulson agreed to help investigators find his victims. Prosecutors in August said he led them to a stretch of desert but could not remember exactly where he buried the pair.

Eureka Mayor Nick Castleton was leading an ATV tour near abandoned mines south of town on Saturday about noon when he came around a corner to find several trucks, pop-up tents and people with shirts that said FBI.

“My first impression was it must be a movie,” Castleton said. “And then when I saw the FBI truck, I thought, ‘No, they don’t bring an FBI truck out to shoot a movie.’”

A spokeswoman for the federal agency confirmed it was helping Orem police investigate, along with the Juab County Sheriff’s Office.

Castleton returned later Saturday evening and spotted a ditch under a cedar tree.

“To me, it was like, OK, that’s a gravesite,” he recalled. Crews had cleared sage brush around the hollowed-out earth and sifted through gravel, he said. On Sunday, he visited the site again to find someone had left flowers there.

The Utah State Medical Examiner’s Office issued a preliminary finding identifying the remains as those of the mother and son, Orem Lt. Trent Colledge said in a prepared statement.

Poulson, of Smithfield, Cache County, pleaded guilty Aug. 6 to murder, a first-degree felony, and manslaughter, a second-degree felony.

He admitted he had been using meth and drinking alcohol when he babysat Gabriel on Sept. 8, 2015, and somehow injured the boy, then put him to bed and later checked on him to find he had died. He lost his nerve and shot Almiron with a handgun while she slept.

Poulson faces at least 16 years and up to life in prison when he is sentenced Sept. 26. Under the terms of his plea bargain, the recovery of the mother and son allows Poulson to seek a judge’s permission to withdraw his pleas and instead admit to 30 lesser, second-degree felony counts: one each of murder and manslaughter, plus 28 of obstructing justice.

Judge Robert Lunnen, however, said last month he would not commit to honoring that deal.

Authorities have said they did not initially focus their criminal case on Poulson, but became suspicious when they perceived he was lying to them. Poulson was ultimately arrested in Hawaii, where prosecutors say he moved after FBI investigators spoke to him about the case.

Almiron’s family members have described her as a happy young mother who loved to sing and play her Fender Stratocaster but who occasionally spent time with the wrong crowd. Poulson had broken up with Almiron four days before her ex-husband reported her as missing, according to testimony at a preliminary hearing last year.

“Our hearts also go out to the families of Emily and Gabe,” Colledge said in the statement. “We hope that these efforts have brought some peace and comfort into your lives.”

Investigators traced his steps by tracking his cellphone, finding he went to two dumpsters in Orem the day after the breakup and bought a shovel and work gloves at a Springville Walmart. Charging documents say he then took Almiron’s red Toyota Prius to southern Utah and left it there.

Eureka’s mayor estimates the site is about 8 miles as the crow flies from the abandoned mine shaft where the bodies of teens Breezy Otteson and Riley Powell were found in 2017. Jerrod Baum, from the nearby tiny community of Mammoth, could face the death penalty if convicted in their deaths.

“The whole area is just covered with little roads that very seldom get driven on,” Castleton said. “If you’re trying to hide something, this is a good area to hide.”

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