Seventeen-year-old KayLee Dutton was killed on the night of January 17, 2025, after a drive with a friend in her small red pickup truck in Cedar City, Utah. The two teens were followed for several miles by a dark-colored truck that flashed high beams before pulling alongside at Midvalley Road and 4300 West. The dark truck opened fire; KayLee was struck, lost control, and crashed through a vinyl fence. She was pronounced dead shortly after arriving at Cedar City Hospital. Her passenger suffered non-life-threatening injuries.

Investigators arrested four men at a Cedar City townhome complex within a day. Michael Edward Hess-Witacki, 23, and Ethan Andrew Galloway, 23, were charged with murder, illegal discharge of a firearm and obstruction of justice. Two others, Aldric S. Felipe, 21, and Matthew D. Sorber-Petri, 22, were charged with obstruction of justice and related offenses for allegedly helping conceal the crime. Authorities say the suspects told police they believed, mistakenly, that the pickup’s occupants had been stalking them and opened fire in what they described as perceived self-defense, firing about 12 rounds.

What details about that stretch of Midvalley Road between the neighborhoods and the intersection might help explain how such a deadly encounter started, and did anyone in the area see the vehicles beforehand?