In the summer of 1980, the life of 20-year-old Cheryl Ann Daniel, a Caucasian female, was tragically cut short. On the night of June 27th, she was abducted from the parking lot of an Alpha Beta supermarket in Las Vegas, Nevada. The circumstances of her initial disappearance were puzzling, leaving behind a void of information for a number of months. Her case took a grim turn when her body was discovered on December 13, 1980, in the rugged terrain of Hell Hole Canyon, near St. George, Utah.
An autopsy would later reveal that she had died from a gunshot wound to the head.
The investigation into her death soon focused on a prime suspect: Stephen Peter Morin, a 34-year-old man originally from Providence, Rhode Island. Morin was a transient with a history of using multiple aliases and was already a person of interest in connection with numerous unsolved murders of young women across the western United States. Investigators learned that Morin had been in the Utah area, where Cheryl's body was found. A significant breakthrough came when it was discovered that Morin had been dating Cheryl Ann Daniel under one of his assumed names, Andrew Ireland.
Further investigation uncovered a pattern of disturbing behavior from Morin. After Cheryl's disappearance, he began stalking one of her friends, Sarah Pisan, using yet another alias, Robert Generoso. Pisan reported receiving offensive messages from him, which led her to cooperate with the police. When shown a series of mugshots, she identified her stalker, only to be informed that all the different photographs were of the same man: Stephen Morin. On January 11, 1981, a warrant was issued for Morin's arrest, charging him with the kidnapping and murder of both Cheryl Ann Daniel and another young woman, Susan Belote, whose body was found in the same vicinity. Morin was eventually apprehended and convicted of other murders, though his extensive criminal activities spanned several states.
