Army veteran killed on a date, Utah cops say. Arrest comes 52 years later ‘to the day’
A second man was identified as a suspect in the killing of a 21-year-old Army veteran on a date at a scenic Utah overlook in 1972, deputies say.
Darrel Eugene “Gene” Choate was taken into custody in the death of Gregory Nickell “52 years to the day of when the crime occurred,” the Uintah County Sheriff’s Office said in a Nov. 26 Facebook post.
“The case was unsolved for more than 50 years, but with the help of recent advancements in DNA testing, Choate was identified and arrested,” deputies said.
Army veteran killed
In 1972, Nickell had recently returned to Vernal after being honorably discharged from the Army, deputies said in a November 2022 Facebook post.
As he and his date sat in a parked car at a “scenic overlook sometime after 1 a.m.” on Nov. 26, 1972, a man approached, deputies said.
He knocked on the window, according to deputies.
After Nickell rolled down the window, the man told him there had been an accident, deputies said.
The man asked Nickell to drive to Vernal to report the crash, and Nickell agreed.
However, as Nickell looked away from the window, the man fired a pistol, deputies said.
Then, he shot Nickell at least three more times, according to deputies.
He then shoved Nickell’s body on top of his date, seated in the passenger seat, got into the car and drove down U.S. Route 40, deputies said.
As he drove, the man “pointed a gun at her head and threatened her,” the woman told investigators.
Eventually, a second car flashed its headlights from behind and pulled in front of them, deputies said.
The man began to follow the second car.
That’s when “the (18-year-old) woman said she realized he had a partner,” deputies said.
The men drove to “a remote area near current day Brough Reservoir,” deputies said.
There, she was moved to the backseat of the second car, and her head was covered with a coat or blanket, deputies said.
The two men doused Nickell’s car in gasoline and set it ablaze with his body inside, deputies said.
For several hours, the men drove around with the woman, deputies said.
“She told investigators each man raped her once,” according to deputies.
They eventually left her on the side of a highway, about 60 miles from the overlook, deputies said.
“The woman walked to a nearby farmhouse for help and law enforcement was notified,” deputies said.
The woman had limited details about the attack to share with investigators, including descriptions of her attackers, deputies said.
At the time, investigators “sent more than 30 pieces of evidence to the FBI Crime Lab for analysis.
“Nothing came of it,” deputies said. “The case went cold.”
DNA evidence collected from the woman at a hospital after the attack “turned out to be the key” in moving the case along, deputies said.
However, “it took almost five decades for science and technology to make” identifying suspects possible, deputies said.
First suspect identified
Investigators submitted the evidence taken from the woman at the hospital in 1972 for testing to the Utah Bureau of Forensic Services in January 2020, deputies said.
In doing so, the testing found two unknown male DNA profiles, deputies said.
The DNA profiles were sent to state and national databases, according to deputies.
Months later, one of the DNA profiles came back as a match to Daniel Arthur Bell, who died in Yakima, Washington, in March 2019, deputies said.
His body had already been cremated, deputies said.
“Undeterred, detectives Vance Norton and Chase Hall began researching Bell to see if there was additional evidence that would link him to the murder and rape; evidence that might also lead them to the second suspect,” deputies said.
Through investigations, the detectives learned that Bell lived in the Uintah Basin in 1972.
“He worked on a ranch in the Book Cliffs south of Vernal and was familiar with the area’s backroads,” deputies said.
He eventually moved out of state, deputies said.
More than a decade later, “he was convicted of rape in Oregon in 1988,” according to deputies.
After being paroled in 1999, he moved to Washington, where he resided until his death, deputies said.
Working with Bell’s widow and family in the Uintah Basin, the detectives found two of Bell’s adult children, who submitted DNA evidence for testing, deputies said.
The testing confirmed Bell as one of the suspects in the 1972 killing and rape, deputies said.
“It’s a tragedy that it’s taken 50 years to identify one suspect,” Sheriff Steve Labrum said in the Facebook post announcing Bell’s identification as a suspect in 2022. “It’s my hope that, with the public’s help, we will identify the other suspect much, much sooner.”
Second suspect ID’d two years later
And sooner, they did.
Though a second suspect was immediately identified after Bell, detectives didn’t give up on closing the case.
“Through further investigation and DNA testing,” deputies said they were able to identify Choate, 74, as a suspect, according to a Nov. 1 Facebook post from the sheriff’s office.
Though a warrant for his was issued Nov. 1, he was arrested weeks later on Nov. 26 after being cleared to leave a Salt Lake City hospital, deputies said.
Choate was 22 years old in 1972, according to deputies.
“We are interested in speaking with anyone who may have known Darrel Eugene ‘Gene’ Choate personally, or who may have information related to this case,” the sheriff’s office said.
Records show he had criminal and residential history throughout multiple Utah counties, as well in “the states of Washington, Oregon, Arizona, Idaho, Nevada, New Mexico and Texas,” deputies said.
“He was a horseman, marksman, truck driver, ranch hand, oil field worker, and worked in the mining industry,” deputies said.
Anyone with information is asked to contact the sheriff’s office at 435-781-6700 or email coldcase@uintah.utah.gov.
Vernal is about a 170-mile drive southeast from Salt Lake City.
This story was originally published November 27, 2024 at 2:33 PM with the headline "Army veteran killed on a date, Utah cops say. Arrest comes 52 years later ‘to the day’."
