Sense of dread precedes second 1982 Millcreek Canyon murder

So she asked him to do something that felt a little irrational.

“I really tried to beg him not to go that day,” she said, “or find a different job …where he’s not going up the canyon…I tried so hard, but he liked his job.”

But her concern was too familiar to feel like a warning to Buddy. He listened as he buttoned his shirt with “Bud” sewn on the chest, ran his favorite blue comb through his thick, unruly curls, and shrugged off his wife’s worry.

Carla was disappointed – but not surprised.

“He always did that,” she said. “But I knew something’s wrong.”

A snowy day in Millcreek Canyon

Even though Carla and Buddy had only been married four years, she knew if there was one thing Buddy Booth was, it was the kind of person who always showed up for work. So she pulled on her coat, and drove him downtown to the laundry delivery company where they’d both worked – Peerless Laundry.

He kissed her goodbye, and headed to the van he drove to businesses where he picked up and delivered laundry. This was a Friday, and that meant he’d be visiting one of Utah’s most well-known restaurants – Log Haven – a popular wedding venue nestled on the north side of Millcreek Canyon.

It was about 7 a.m. – and the sun was just rising – as he climbed into the van, and then, undaunted by the weather, 27 cents in his pocket, Buddy prepared himself for a steep, slick drive.

Carla began the drive back home, to their two tiny girls, to their apartment and modest dreams. It had been a tough year for their young family, as they’d nearly divorced.

But they had a new baby and new resolve and they were young – just 23 and 24. And if there was one thing Carla thought they had in abundance, it was time.

A double murder in the snow

When Buddy Booth eased the van up the snow-covered driveway at Log Haven, he noticed another car already outside the restaurant. It was a Jeep, and the doors were still open. As he got closer, he could see something in the snow.

“I shot two people today,” he told detectives. “I’ve done a very bad thing.”

In an hour-long confession, Log Haven manager Michael Moore admitted in excruciating detail what he did, the same afternoon he killed Jordan Rasmussen and Buddy Booth.

And while his reasons would confuse and anger both families, investigators felt certain about one thing – this case deserved the most punitive punishment the state could muster.

Salt Lake Assistant District Attorney John T. Nielsen saw it as an obvious capital murder case.

“It sounded unusual to me,” he said. “Because it was a double homicide, at a fairly famous place in the county, the Log Haven restaurant, and I knew it was going to be a very prominently covered case in the news. And that we needed to do everything right, because of the nature of the case.”

Detectives told him what they thought happened, including the names of those killed. And that’s when he realized he knew the family of one of the victims.

“When I found out who his parents were, I was particularly incensed,” Nielsen said. “Because his father Elden Rasmussen was a high school biology teacher of mine and a person that I had become friends with. …When I found out who the family was, it just made me sick.”

Nielsen said he decided to go visit his friend Elden Rasmussen. During that visit, he assured Jordan’s parents he would do what he could to see justice done. And in this case, it meant sending Michael Moore to death row.

“This was a slam dunk, it seemed to me,” he said. “And I thought of an obvious case that merited the death penalty.”

Carla Booth agreed.

She couldn’t even go back to the apartment she and Buddy shared. She stayed with family, and with every day that passed, she grew more angry.

“I was furious,” she said. “He took my husband, he should be taken.”