Investigators say the victim’s truck was found bloodied in Taylorsville and his body later recovered in a shallow grave in Tooele County.
SALT LAKE CITY, UT — A 32-year-old man was booked into the Salt Lake County Jail on Tue., Dec. 30, after police said he lured a 60-year-old Herriman resident to meet over car parts, shot him, and buried his body in a remote area. The suspect, identified as Jeffrey Mauricio Lopez, is being held without bail on aggravated murder and related charges, authorities said.
Police and court records indicate the case moved quickly from a missing-person report to a homicide investigation as evidence surfaced across multiple counties. The victim, named by investigators as Kevin Van Beuge, left home early Saturday to meet a seller. By that afternoon, his truck turned up empty and soaked with blood in Taylorsville. Detectives later found a shallow grave in Tooele County and confirmed Van Beuge had been shot. Lopez is charged with first-degree aggravated murder, aggravated kidnapping and aggravated robbery, and with abuse or desecration of a dead human body. Prosecutors and Herriman police say the investigation is active as they sort through surveillance video, financial transactions and phone data tied to the final hours of the meeting.
According to arresting documents, Van Beuge planned to buy car parts from a seller and left his Herriman home before dawn Saturday. Just after 6 a.m., investigators say a Venmo payment was sent from Van Beuge to an account linked to Lopez. By later in the morning, surveillance cameras allegedly recorded a masked man attempting withdrawals or transactions at ATMs in Salt Lake, Tooele and Wasatch counties using the victim’s payment methods. Another camera captured Van Beuge’s truck being dropped off near the suspect’s residence, and no one else was seen with the vehicle, police said. Detectives said the truck contained “significant amounts of blood,” and a search across jurisdictions led them to a secluded spot in Tooele County, where a body was recovered and later identified as Van Beuge. A medical examiner determined he died from gunshot wounds to the arm and chest. In the arrest report, investigators wrote that Lopez “left the victim in the bed of the truck for over a day until he located a secluded location to bury the victim in a shallow grave,” alleging he acted with “depraved indifference to human life.”
Lopez told investigators he met with Van Beuge on Saturday and rode with him to “several locations” so the older man could use different ATMs, according to the police narrative, but he claimed Van Beuge later left with another person and abandoned the truck. Detectives say video and transaction records contradict parts of that account, alleging Lopez was alone on the ATM footage and left the vehicle by himself at a predetermined spot. The case file describes a homemade mask seen on the ATM video and details multiple unsuccessful cash attempts. Detectives also point to location data that they say places the suspect and the truck along a route between Salt Lake County and Tooele County around the time of the killing. Officials have not publicly identified the exact site of the burial, citing the ongoing investigation, and did not release information on a recovered firearm.
The search began when family members reported Van Beuge missing after he did not return home from the planned purchase. Herriman police coordinated with agencies in Taylorsville, Tooele County and Wasatch County as tips came in from businesses and residents. The vehicle discovery in Taylorsville shifted the case from a welfare check to a probable homicide. Investigators traced financial activity to the Venmo transaction shortly after dawn, which they say linked directly to the suspect’s account. Over the following days, officers executed warrants for surveillance footage, transaction logs and phone records that mapped movements of the truck and of a phone associated with Lopez. The body’s recovery in Tooele County finalized the transition to a homicide case and prompted coordination with the state medical examiner’s office, which confirmed the cause of death as gunshot wounds.
Records show Lopez was booked into the Salt Lake County Jail on Tue., Dec. 30, and ordered held without bail. He faces first-degree felony counts of aggravated murder, aggravated kidnapping and aggravated robbery, along with a third-degree felony count of abuse or desecration of a dead human body. Prosecutors said the charging documents are based on location data, video recordings and financial transactions gathered from several cities. A pretrial hearing date has not been set. If the case proceeds as a capital-eligible homicide, the county attorney would have to declare whether to seek an aggravated sentence at a later stage. For now, the case is assigned to the district court, where filings will set the next appearance and deadlines for discovery and motions.
Neighbors near the Taylorsville drop-off location told officers they noticed the truck parked unusually and did not see anyone return to it, according to police notes included in the case file. In Tooele County, deputies secured the burial site and established a perimeter while crime-scene technicians documented footprints, tire marks and disturbed soil. “There are still steps we’re working through to understand every stop made that day,” one investigator said in a brief interview outside the scene, adding that detectives are cataloging ATM attempts and reviewing hours of camera footage from gas stations and businesses along the corridors between Salt Lake, Tooele and Wasatch counties. Herriman officials thanked residents who shared doorbell video and asked anyone with weekend footage along Mountain View Corridor and SR-36 to contact police.
As of Wed., Dec. 31, investigators had not released a possible motive beyond the alleged car-parts arrangement, and they did not disclose whether the parties knew each other before the sale. Police are also analyzing whether additional people may have helped after the fact, though no other arrests had been announced. The next milestone is a court filing that will set a schedule for an initial appearance and any bail review, followed by a probable cause conference. Detectives said they expect to return to several ATM locations for additional statements and to complete laboratory testing of items collected from the truck.
Author note: Last updated January 1, 2026.