Investigators say Jeusselem Elieth Genes Vitola was found in a camper trailer in Draper after the couple was reported missing from Saratoga Springs.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, UT — Police in northern Utah are searching for a 57-year-old man after his wife, Jeusselem Elieth Genes Vitola, 43, was found dead inside a camper trailer during what began as a missing-person investigation.
Authorities identified Alvaro Jose Urbina Rojas as a person of interest and said he left Utah and had been in California as detectives tried to piece together the last days of the couple’s movements. The case shifted quickly from a welfare concern to a homicide investigation, with local police working alongside federal agencies and waiting for final autopsy findings that could help explain how Vitola died.
Police first asked the public for help locating both Vitola and Rojas after family members said the couple was last seen at about 10:15 a.m. on Feb. 26. Saratoga Springs Police Chief Andrew Burton said relatives told investigators that Rojas was supposed to drive Vitola to work that morning. She never arrived, and neither of them came back home. After Vitola missed work, family members asked police to check on the couple. Burton said detectives later learned the family had also gone to a storage lot in Draper on Saturday to look for them. The RV there was locked, he said, and relatives looked through the windows but did not see anyone inside. By Tuesday, detectives had obtained a search warrant for the camper. Serving that warrant, they found the body of an adult woman they believed to be Vitola.
Investigators said the couple had been married for 19 years and had two children, including a juvenile son. Burton said the family described their disappearance as deeply out of character and told police the pair had no known serious medical issues, no criminal history and no known history of domestic violence calls at their home. He also said family members reported recent discussions of divorce. Detectives tried to track the couple through their phones, but police said both devices were off, and Rojas’ phone was last pinged in the Draper area. Burton said an autopsy had been performed, but the medical examiner had not yet settled on a final cause of death. “There are at least two, possibly three methodologies that could have caused death,” Burton said, adding that investigators were still waiting for the medical examiner to narrow it down.
The case widened beyond Utah County as detectives mapped the route of the family’s gray 2005 Toyota Sequoia, which police say Rojas was believed to be driving. Burton said traffic and surveillance cameras captured the SUV in Cedar City, St. George and Las Vegas later on Feb. 26, though investigators could not tell who was inside. He said credit card use later that night placed activity in Southern California, and the vehicle was seen again on camera there on Monday night. Police said Border Patrol records did not show the SUV crossing into Mexico. In public statements, Saratoga Springs police said they were coordinating with the Draper Police Department, the FBI, Immigration and Customs Enforcement and U.S. Border Patrol. The city’s press release also listed Rojas by the name Jose Alvaro and described him as 5-foot-9 and about 193 pounds.
Much of the investigation now centers on the gap between the couple leaving home and the discovery of Vitola’s body in the RV. Detectives have not publicly said when she died, where investigators believe she was killed, or whether anyone else may have helped Rojas travel after the couple vanished. Burton said police had considered different possibilities while trying to identify who was in the SUV as it moved south through Utah and Nevada. He said the footage did not answer whether Rojas was alone, whether Vitola was with him, or whether someone else could have switched vehicles with him later. Those unanswered questions have left investigators relying on physical evidence from the trailer, phone data, surveillance footage and interviews. Police have not announced criminal charges as of the latest public update, and they have not released a final medical examiner report.
The killing has shaken relatives and members of Utah’s Venezuelan community, where the couple had been known for years. Burton said the family had come to the United States legally from Venezuela about a decade ago and had built a life in Utah. Their disappearance at first stirred fears among some relatives that immigration agents might have detained them, but police later said that was not the case. Instead, the search ended at the Draper storage lot, where the locked camper became the center of the investigation. In a public post after her mother’s death, the couple’s daughter, Ariany Urbina, mourned Vitola and wrote that she would care for her younger brother. Burton, speaking at a news conference, offered condolences to the family and thanked them for cooperating with investigators as detectives continued searching for answers.
Rojas has been entered into law enforcement databases as a person of interest, and Burton said an arrest warrant was pending further investigation and review by the Utah County Attorney’s Office. For now, police are still trying to locate him and the Toyota Sequoia with Utah plate T409YB. The next major step in the case is expected to come from either a confirmed sighting, an arrest decision, or the release of final autopsy findings.
Author note: Last updated March 9, 2026.