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News story - June 21, 2001

Manhunt covered U.S.
Search for a murder suspect took six weeks and covered seven states from California to South Carolina.

By Angus M. Thuermer Jr.

Nobody, it seemed, cared much about Steven Wayne Miller.

He was a 47-year-old drifter who lived in a red Toyota van. He listed the El-Ada Community Action Agency - a mission in Boise - as his home. He was originally from New Jersey, but hadn't been in touch with his family for 14 years.

Miller was beaten to death on about April 14, in a riverside campground in the Hoback Canyon. Even as a corpse, Miller was ignored.

It was two weeks before his body was discovered wrapped in a sleeping bag at campsite #8 in the Hoback Campground. It took seven days to identify Miller and another two weeks after that to track down his relatives.

Whoever the killer was, it seemed he drifted on as well. The trail was cold.

It might have been easy to dismiss the case, to write Miller off as a transient who wasn't part of this community, to figure that the residents of Teton County weren't harmed by his death, that the "peace and dignity" of the state hadn't really suffered that much.

But a team of investigators from the Teton County Sheriff's Office didn't think that way. Instead, they started wearing out shoe leather, questioning people in the Hoback Junction area when they had only a picture of a dead man to go on.

In their quest they tracked a suspect from Boise, Idaho, where they contend he met Miller, to Jackson Hole and on to Salt Lake City. They followed his route to San Francisco, to South Carolina and finally chased him down in Missouri.

Last week, investigator Rick Wermuth drove back to Teton County with 39-year-old Tracy Von Quick in custody. Quick's preliminary hearing in Teton County Justice Court was put off Tuesday until July 17. He remains in custody facing a single count of first degree murder.

A jury will decide whether he killed Steven Wayne Miller. The quest that could bring the suspect before a jury was a six-week, seven-state investigation that stretched from coast to coast.

Detective Wermuth was the lead investigator and Detective Brian Christensen his close associate.

Campers found Miller's body on April 28. There was no identification, few clues as to who he was.

Residents in the Hoback area who recognized Miller's picture said he had been traveling with another man. That man was thought to have worked at a stable in Bondurant.

Ironically, investigators knew who they were looking for before they knew who had been murdered. At a stable in Bondurant, managers identified the picture of Miller as the man who drove a red van and brought another man to the ranch for a day's work. The worker's name was Quick, Tracy Von Quick.

The day they got that important clue, May 8, detectives returned to their offices in Jackson to learn that the State Crime Lab had identified the body as Miller's.
A flurry of promising leads followed. Miller's van was said to have license plates with red on them - perhaps from Idaho. A registration check listed a Boise address as Miller's home.

Detectives traveled to Boise to find the El-Ada Community Action Agency, a mission, at the listed address. They learned Miller used the mission as a base and had mail waiting for him.

One letter said Miller's van had been impounded in the Salt Lake City area.
While in Boise, detectives confirmed that Quick had been arrested there on a petty theft charge. The day he was released from jail, April 10, he stayed at a Boise mission.

Detectives moved on to the Salt Lake City area and combed missions and taverns looking for signs of Quick. People said they recognized his picture, a mug shot obtained from Boise authorities, but hadn't seen him for a while.

Investigators then turned up a sexual assault for Quick in South Salt Lake City. It alleged he committed burglary and forcible sexual abuse on March 15. Investigators believe he lived with a woman in an apartment complex where the assault took place. She told Teton County detectives in May that she hadn't seen Quick in months.

At the end of a cold trail, detectives searched for Quick's relatives. They discover he was married to and subsequently divorced from a woman who lives in North Carolina. The couple had two sons.

Detectives contacted the woman's mother, who convinced ex-wife Janet Quick to call authorities in Jackson. She told them she had heard from Quick's own mother who had news about the suspect. Quick's sister told Quick's mother that she had heard from the suspect in San Francisco, the ex-wife reported. Quick was said to be planning to ride a bus to his mother's place near Columbia, S.C., on May 20.

Detectives confirmed the third-hand information with calls to Greyhound Bus Lines in San Francisco. They also learned that Quick had applied for food stamps in that city.

South Carolina lawmen staked out the Columbia bus depot when Quick was to arrive. They spotted Quick's mother and sister, but Quick did not arrive on the 3:45 p.m. bus as expected.

Facing another possible dead end, detectives phoned Quick's ex-wife again on June 7. She reported that Quick's mother's car had been stolen. That prompted South Carolina lawmen to interview Quick's mother, who admitted her son had been with her from May 24 to 29.

More work by South Carolina cops revealed Quick got an electrician's job in Scott City, Mo. Teton County investigators found out Quick had been fired from that job. But the contractor had an address for Quick in Cape Girardeau, Mo.

Detective Wermuth and Sgt. Lindsey Moss drove to Missouri and with local authorities arrested Quick on the Utah sexual assault warrant. They questioned him about Miller. Quick said the last time he saw the man was at the Hoback Campground before he left for San Francisco.

Wermuth then showed Quick a fictitious affidavit that indicated a witness saw Quick abandon Miller's van in the Salt Lake City area. Quick said he needed a cigarette break, according to an affidavit, then signed a paper agreeing to continue talking.

According to the affidavit, Quick then answered more questions and said he hit Miller over the head and killed him after the man made an unwanted sexual advance.

According to the affidavit, Quick said Miller shouted out his last words: "I'm your friend!"

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