An additional arrest has been made in the case of a beating death that took place last April in Duchesne County. According to the Duchesne County Sheriff’s Office, 37-year-old Kristy Lee Whitchurch was “arrested on Tuesday, November 13th, after a witness came forward and told investigators Whitchurch was directly involved in the
April 6th
assault that resulted in the death of 51-year-old Sherry Lynn Melo.” There were five people charged last April with Aggravated Murder in the assault. The Sheriff’s Office reported then that the group “went to the front door, which was open with only the glass storm door closed. They broke the glass out and entered the house, chasing both victims out of the house and then assaulted them both outside the home…The man and woman [Sherry Melo] were taken by ambulance to the hospital where medical staff determined [Melo] had bleeding on her brain… The woman told investigators one of the female suspects hit her in the head with a bat.” The charges against 35-year-old Thomas Neil Tuinman, 33-year-old Stephanie Tuinman, 30-year-old Michael Wallace Tuinman, 30-year-old Samantha Tuinman, and 29-year-old Byron Rashad Thompson were amended from Attempted Aggravated Murder to Aggravated Murder
on Monday, April 23rd
, after Melo succumbed to her injuries from the assault and passed away in a hospital in Provo. Whitchurch is now among those implicated. She was charged in 8th District Court on Wednesday with Murder, Aggravated Assault, and Aggravated Burglary and has been booked into Duchesne County Jail.
