Investigators have discovered “minor pieces of evidence” that are not enough to charge Greg Kyle DeBoer with homicide for killing Hideout resident Patrick Hayes in a road rage incident last fall, Wasatch County Sheriff Jared Rigby said this week. DeBoer, 62, fatally shot Hayes, 61, around 11 p.m. Sept. 25, 2024, at the Ross Creek entrance of Jordanelle State Park, according to the Sheriff’s Office. He then buried his handgun. Deputies found him a month and a half later, on Nov. 13, at which point DeBoer said he shot Hayes in self-defense. He was arrested Dec. 27 and released the next day.For now, DeBoer is facing a charge of obstruction of justice, a second-degree felony punishable by up to 15 years in prison and a fine of up to $10,000. Hayes’ family, outraged, said obstruction of justice is not enough. Hayes, a California native who moved to Utah to compete for the University of Utah’s Division 1 swim team when he started college, has lived in the state for more than 40 years. He was self-employed and lived in his Hideout home with his fiancée, Sue Ann Kern. She said that they were together for more than a decade before Hayes proposed, but they put off planning a wedding when Sue Ann Kern’s daughter, Jessica Kern, became engaged as well. At Sue Ann’s kitchen table, Sam Kern and her mother go over details of the investigation, surrounded by photos of Hayes. Hayes holds a glass of wine up in cheers in one photo, on vacation with his fiancée. In another, Sue Ann and Hayes are embracing and laughing, and both have donned leis in celebration of Hayes’ 50th birthday.“Let’s be real,” said Sam Kern. “You follow someone home, you kill them, and then bury the gun — of course, when you’re caught, you say it was self defense.”Behind them, the view from Sue Ann’s deck shows a mountain landscape shadowing the Jordanelle Reservoir. Outside their front door, there’s a clear view of where Hayes was shot at the Ross Creek entrance of Jordanelle State Park. The Ross Creek entrance gate house still has remnants of the memorial for Patrick Hayes on Tuesday. Credit: Clayton Steward/Park Record“The only thing to me that seems to point to a self-defense claim is Greg’s word alone,” Sam Kern said. DeBoer appeared in a virtual Heber District Court hearing on Dec. 27, during which bail was set at $20,000 under the condition that DeBoer be fitted with an ankle monitor before his release from jail. Rigby said DeBoer met bail and was released on Dec. 28. DeBoer, a Browns Canyon resident, was determined to be neither a flight risk or a risk to his community by Judge Jennifer A. Mabey at his hearing on Dec. 27. Defense Attorney Andrew Deesing said then that DeBoer is not a man in a position to flee and that he has been cooperative throughout the investigation. DeBoer does not have a criminal record.“He owns a farm in Wasatch County. He lives somewhat off-grid, I suppose, but he takes care of his animals,” Deesing said at the hearing. “He lives with his girlfriend who helps plow the fields and feed the mules.” Deesing mentioned that, though he is a caregiver to his 90-year-old mother who has dementia, DeBoer has health issues of his own. The night Hayes was shot, DeBoer should have turned off S.R. 248 more than a mile before the Ross Creek entrance if he was driving to his Browns Canyon home, according to the sheriff. “It’s been debated extensively and discussed,” Rigby said. “The facts are that the defendant followed Mr. Hayes on 248 further than the turn for where he would normally go to his residence. … It is concerning to us that the defendant followed Mr. Hayes more than a mile.”Hayes was less than half a mile from the Hideout home he shared with his fiancée when he parked at the Ross Creek area. “Although we can’t prove that it was at this time known by the defendant, it was known by Mr. Hayes that he was getting closer to his own home,” Rigby said. In the surveillance footage from the Ross Creek entrance gate house, Rigby said the video shows Hayes arriving at Ross Creek, parking and getting out of his vehicle. Hayes then walks toward an approaching Jeep Gladiator driven by DeBoer and “is making some statements.” Rigby said DeBoer then makes a sharp turn to the right, toward Hayes, before hitting his brakes and making another move to the right, toward Hayes again. “Yes, the defendant’s vehicle does move twice toward Mr. Hayes. It does seem to be aggressive,” Rigby said. “As far as speaking to the intent for doing that or those kinds of things, I don’t know enough about the defendant or what happened prior to Mr. Hayes and the defendant being there to be able to give a conclusive opinion on that part.”DeBoer shot Hayes shortly after Hayes approached the vehicle. Twelve hours after Hayes was shot, a passerby reported to police man’s body at the Ross Creek entrance. No prior report had been made to police about the shooting.“There is no requirement in the state law that someone who’s in a self-defense type of situation, that they have a requirement to call 911,” Rigby said. “We find that very troubling, and it’s not right. … It ought to be changed.”The video has not yet been released to the public or Hayes’ family, but “at some point in time that video needs to be released,” Rigby said. According to a press release from the Wasatch County Sheriff’s Office, Hayes was holding a baton and a pocketknife when he left his vehicle that night. Sue Ann Kern said Hayes carried both objects routinely while he walked their two dogs. “He used it [the baton] because he thought that if he had it when he was walking Tilly and a coyote came up to him, he thought it would protect them. … It was a cheap, retractable thing,” she said. “But I remember my neighbors and I used to laugh at him. I was like, ‘That’s not going to do you any damn good against a coyote.’”DeBoer faces a hearing this month to determine whether he will face charges of obstruction of justice. DeBoer was detained by Wasatch County Sheriff’s Office deputies on Nov. 13 for questioning about Hayes’ death and admitted to the shooting and claimed he “acted in self-defense,” according to arresting documents.The affidavit of probable cause stated that “Greg DeBoer admitted to shooting Patrick Hayes with his .45 caliber Kimber 1911 and admitted to burying the gun near his house sometime after the shooting.”Wasatch County investigators uncovered that the .45 caliber Black Talon ammunition uncovered alongside DeBoer’s gun matched the single .45 caliber bullet recovered from Hayes’ body by the State Medical Examiner’s Office. “The recovered bullet was a Winchester Black Talon. This is a bullet that has been out of production for at least 20 years and is therefore uncommon. Subsequent questioning of people who know Greg DeBoer revealed that he owns a Kimber 1911 .45 caliber handgun, which he frequently carries and that he also loads his gun with Winchester Black Talon ammunition,” arresting documents said. An obstruction of justice charge involves hindering, delaying or preventing an investigation. “That the defendant buried the firearm is very concerning to us in law enforcement, and we feel that it’s relevant and important to the analysis of what the defendant’s frame of mind was, what his state of mind was, prior to this encounter, and then during, and then after,” Rigby said. Sue Ann Kern said that to the Hayes family, DeBoer’s actions were not at all like someone acting in self-defense.“People keep saying, ‘Why didn’t Patrick do this? Why didn’t Patrick do that?’” she said. “Why aren’t we asking, ‘Why didn’t Greg turn off at Browns Canyon to go home?’ Patrick was going home. Why did Greg pursue Patrick?”Mother and daughter said that since the shooting, there has been an outpouring of support from their Hideout community and beyond, which Sue Ann Kern said can be overwhelming. “One of the things that’s impacted me so greatly is that every time I go out … people come up to me and say, ‘I’m so sorry for what’s happening. I can’t believe you’re going through this,’” she said. “It just shows how much our community is suffering. It’s so hard for all of us.”Both said that the investigation into the shooting has caused more strife than satisfaction. “We would love to just be able to appreciate the good memories,” Sam Kern said, “and move forward with healing.”The post Wasatch County sheriff says shooter’s obstruction in road rage case investigation raises concerns appeared first on Park Record.