Witness Accounts, Surveillance Help Piece Together North Logan Murder Investigation, Police Say
Nov 26, 2019, 6:45 PM | Updated: 8:16 pm
NORTH LOGAN, Utah – Officials with the North Park Police Department said they were able to retrace the footsteps of 28-year-old Shawn Ryan Andrews after he allegedly stabbed and killed his mother, thanks to witnesses and surveillance video.
Andrews tried at one point to dispose of evidence and fabricate his story, according to court documents, but police said those witness accounts and surveillance footage helped them piece together the moments after his mother’s alleged murder on Saturday.
A neighbor, who asked not to be identified, told KSL she responded to some commotion she heard upstairs from her apartment at the North Pointe Apartments complex.
A neighbor told KSL she heard a commotion above her apartment at the North Pointe Apartments complex.
“It sounded like people were just up there, fighting and wrestling on the floor, something that was not normal,” she said. “Then it stopped, you heard, ‘Help! Call 911!’ and at that moment, that’s when I jumped up. I ran upstairs, handed my phone to my spouse, and had her call 911.”
The neighbor said Andrews quickly blew past her as she ran up the stairs. She said what she saw next hasn’t left her mind.
“I just feel sorry for the family,” she said. “One of the gentlemen that lives there was holding the woman and just was wrapping his arm around her, trying to get her to breathe, and there was a knife-sized wound on her left backside. It was pretty bad.”
According to an arrest affidavit, Andrews ran across the street to a Walmart, went inside to use the bathroom and took off.
Documents stated Andrews was later seen on surveillance video near the store and at another location, where he tried to dispose of his backpack and the murder weapon.
North Park Interim Police Chief Ulysses Black said Tuesday that witnesses told detectives they saw Andrews running toward the Walmart. Black said that information ultimately helped them to retrace Andrews’ steps and find the surveillance video.
“In this instance, it was invaluable, the information that was provided by citizens within the area,” Black said.
Arresting documents stated that Andrews initially told police that he came out of the bathroom to find his brother next to his mother with the knife in her back and that she yelled at him to “run!”
Documents further stated that Andrews claimed he grabbed the knife and took off before later admitting that he was the one who stabbed his mother, 67-year-old Debra Andrews.
Andrews was booked into Cache County Jail on suspicion of murder and obstruction of justice.
