Margo Bond, a 42-year-old Caucasian female, went to her janitorial job at Kennedy Junior High School in West Valley, Utah, on a February evening in 1992, never to be seen alive again. Her disappearance prompted a police investigation when her car was found still in the school's parking lot. For four long months, her family waited for answers, a period of agonizing uncertainty that ended tragically with the discovery of her remains in the desolate West Desert of Tooele County.
The break
in the case came years later, in 1995, from an unlikely source: prison inmates. Their tips led investigators to Roberto Arguelles, a man already incarcerated for other crimes. When confronted, Arguelles confessed not only to Margo's murder but to a string of other heinous acts that had terrorized the Salt Lake City area. He admitted to luring Margo out of the school by telling her a child was hurt outside. Once she was outside, he pulled a knife on her. Arguelles revealed that he had abducted her, drove her to the desert, sexually assaulted her, and then strangled her to death before burying her body.
Arguelles, who became known as "The Salt Lake City Strangler," was a serial killer and sex offender who had been paroled in 1991. His confession brought to light a terrifying killing spree that occurred in the winter of 1992. In addition to Margo Bond, he confessed to the murders of three teenage girls: Stephanie Blundell, Lisa Martinez, and Tuesday Roberts. He led authorities to the burial sites of his other victims, bringing a grim closure to several families who had been searching for their missing loved ones. Arguelles pleaded guilty to four counts of capital murder and was sentenced to death. However, he would never face his scheduled execution by firing squad. He died in prison from a bowel obstruction before the sentence could be carried out.
