SALT LAKE CITY — A California man was arrested and charged with murder in connection to a brutal attack at a Midvale massage that left one woman dead in early January.
Steven Brinkerhoff, 39, faces one count of first-degree felony murder for the death of 45-year-old Yuping Jiao, an immigrant from China.
Brinkerhoff does not live in Utah and has a residence in Redondo Beach, California. He was arrested outside of a massage parlor in California on January 19.
Calling the crime "very traumatic for everybody involved," Salt Lake County Sheriff Rosie Rivera said she hopes the arrest brings some sort of relief to the community.
"These types of cases take a toll on our community," she said.
On January 4, Jiao was found dead at A+ Massage in Midvale, located at 7444 South State Street.
Charging documents detail the crime scene, with officers discovering Jiao dead with multiple wounds along her body.
The Utah State Office of the Medical Examiner found 56 stab wounds on Jiao's body as well as slice marks on her fingers, prick marks on her ankles and a small chunk of skin that had been removed, documents state.
Investigators sent evidence to a lab for testing, where a DNA profile was found that connected Brinkerhoff to the case.
Video surveillance matched the description of Brinkerhoff, who only has one leg and was seen using a wheelchair to access to parlor at 12:30 p.m. and then leaving the building just before 2:30 p.m.
"Detectives continued their investigation and they were able to identify that cell phone data placed Brinkerhoff in the area of A+ Massage on the day of the incident," said Salt Lake County District Attorney Sim Gill. "Additionally, Brinkerhoff had made contact via text messages with Yuping prior to the incident."
After learning about Brinkerhoff's involvement in the crime, officials enlisted the help of federal partners to take him into custody in California. He was arrested and is being held without bail while awaiting extradition to Utah.
In the days and weeks after the brutal crime, officials asked other massage parlor employees to be extremely cautious and the incident caused ripple effects of fear within the community.
"This kind of event can really instill a lot of fear in a community, and that's exactly what we saw in Midvale," said Midvale Mayor Marcus Stevenson.
Though it took just over two weeks to arrest Brinkerhoff, Rivera and Gill said the process moved relatively quickly, thanking the dozens of officers and investigators across multiple agencies for their diligent work.
"We knew from the start how brutal it was and we had to do everything we could to get this person off the street to keep our community safe," Rivera explained.
The investigation into the horrific crime continues as Brinkerhoff is in custody. Rivera said the process is far from over and was sparse with further details as she didn't want to compromise the investigation.
Charging documents expose Brinkerhoff's prior "extensive criminal history" in California including possession of a dangerous weapon, assault on a peace officer, fighting in public, drugs and more.
