In a quiet Salt Lake City neighborhood, the life of a two-month-old Caucasian female named Lyrik Poike was tragically cut short on September 18, 2015. That afternoon, an unsettling chain of events began to unfold when an eight-year-old boy was not picked up from his elementary school. Concerned school officials, unable to reach any family members, contacted the police.
Officers accompanied the boy to a home on Sir Philip Drive, where they made a gruesome discovery that shattered the peace of the community.
Inside the residence, police found the bodies of three individuals who had been shot to death. They were identified as 50-year-old Heike Poike, her infant granddaughter Lyrik, and 28-year-old Dakota Smith. The home belonged to Alexander Hung Tran, 32, who had been renting the upstairs portion of the house to Heike Poike and her grandchildren. Tran lived in the basement of the same house. When police entered the home, they found Tran inside, in possession of a gun.
The investigation quickly centered on Tran as the primary suspect. During questioning, he admitted to killing the three individuals. The motive, according to prosecutors, stemmed from a dispute over the living arrangements; Tran's mother, the homeowner, had asked him to have the tenants move out, and he claimed they would not leave. Tran was arrested without incident and booked into the Salt Lake County Jail on suspicion of three counts of aggravated murder.
The legal proceedings that followed were prolonged due to questions about Tran's mental state. He was diagnosed with schizoaffective disorder and, in December 2016, was found incompetent to stand trial, meaning he could not fully understand the charges against him. This led to a delay in the case as he was ordered to receive treatment at the Utah State Hospital. However, by December 2020, a judge ruled that his competency had been restored, and the triple-murder trial was eventually scheduled to begin in the late summer of 2025.
