Son in custody after 2 found dead at Spanish Fork home

The names of the victims have not yet been released.

The son of a couple who was found dead in a home in Spanish Fork on Tuesday is now in custody as a “person of interest” in her death.

The Spanish Fork Police Department said the bodies were found at a home in the area of ​​2200 East and 1400 South.

According to the department, police received a call for a social check from a colleague who said one of the victims had not shown up for work in the past two days.

“It affects everyone – it affects the family, the neighbours. It’s affecting the city as a whole,” said Lt. Cory Slaymaker.

Officers tried unsuccessfully to contact the victim via cellphone before finding an unlocked window and entering the home. Inside, police found a 58-year-old man and a 50-year-old woman, both deceased.

The couple’s son, 26-year-old Tryston Robert Erickson, has been identified as a person of interest and police were looking for him Tuesday afternoon. A Hyundai Elantra was missing from the home, believed to have been taken with him.

Erickson was located after the female victim’s phone location was pinged around 4 p.m. near Steamboat Springs, Colorado. Police then spotted him driving the missing Hyundai about 50 miles away near Kremmling.

The officers tried to stop him, but he led them in pursuit. The pursuit eventually ended and Erickson was taken into custody. Spanish Fork police said he was being held at the Grand County, Colorado jail on “local charges.” Whether he will be extradited has not been said; He was not classified as a suspect at the time.

“We have detectives who will be traveling to Colorado to interview him and try to gather more information,” Slaymaker said.

The names of the victims have not yet been released.

In 2016, Erickson was arrested for driving under the influence and crashing into a home in Payson. He also has several charges in the past – some he was convicted of, others were dropped.

“All I could find out from our detectives early on was that he had some mental health issues. I’m not entirely sure what all of those issues were,” Slaymaker said.

This article is published by the Utah News Collaborative, a partnership of Utah news organizations dedicated to educating readers across the state.