Two missing and endangered Utah women have been located in Branson ... But only one is alive.
Joanna Small has been looking into this suspicious death that spans 1200 miles.
Salt Lake City, Utah, authorities contacted Branson police Monday night to ask for help.
Two women from Salt Lake City suburbs were missing and considered endangered and possibly in the Ozarks.
The police found 50-year-old Deborah Jones' body inside the trunk of her Volkswagon Passat parked outside the 76 Inn Motel off West 76.
Her ex-boyfriend, 47-year-old Michael Doyel and the other missing woman, 60-year-old Patricia Murray were found in a motel room and taken into custody.
"There were two females who had been entered as missing and endangered people. The female we have in custody is one of those we have entered,” explains Branson Police Chief Caroll McCullough.
The other one is dead.
Police aren't even calling it a crime yet, though.
McCullough continues, “there have been no charges filed here."
Monday night Branson police fielded a call from the Salt Lake City Police Department.
Authorities in Utah suspected a trio of people, two of whom were considered missing, had made their way into Southwest Missouri.
Branson police quickly located a vehicle that belonged to one of the missing, Deborah Jones, outside the 76 Inn.
They found all three people too, but only two alive.
“At first the male gave us a false IDand through further investigation we were able to determine most likely it was the person Salt Lake City was looking for,” McCullough says.
That person, Jones' ex-boyfriend Michael Doyel, was found in a motel room with the other missing woman, Patricia Murray.
Police are unsure of the relationship, if there is one, between the two women.
The pair gave police permission to search Jones' car.
Officers found her body in a storage container in the trunk.
The Salt Lake City Police Department sent a detective to Branson to conduct an investigation.
Right now, the two in custody have not been charged.
Salt Lake PD are waiting for results of an autopsy on Jones to determine whether a crime was committed and if so, where it happened.