Man arrested in 12-year-old Idaho Falls cold case
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IDAHO FALLS — After 12 years, one of eastern Idaho’s cold cases appears to be coming to a close.
Idaho Falls Police announced Friday that Kenneth Ryan Jones, 30, has been charged with second-degree murder in the death of 21-year-old Stephanie Eldredge.
Eldredge disappeared from her Idaho Falls apartment in 2007. Her remains were found nearly three years later in a shallow grave in the foothills east of Idaho Falls.
“I just can’t understand what it would be like to have a family member, that you love, to have this happen to them and waiting that long — I don’t know if it’s closure or what, but that family is just fantastic,” Idaho Falls Police Chief Bryce Johnson said in Friday’s news conference.
Sgt. Jessica Marley was assigned to the case after joining the IFPD Investigations Bureau. In Dec. 2017 she reported she believed the case could be solved given time to dedicate to it.
Marley and others reviewed all of the details of the case, eventually leading them to further evidence and the belief Jones was involved in Eldredge’s death.
“This arrest has been a long time coming,” Johnson said in a news release. “Today, we are glad to have reached this point in the investigation and to be able to provide closure to the case and to the Eldredge family. I am proud of the detectives who have pushed this investigation through to the finish line.”
Jones is already incarcerated in Boise for a probation violation stemming from a 2011 third-degree arson conviction in Bonneville County.
Bonneville County Prosecuting Attorney Daniel Clark said he expects Jones to be given over to Idaho Falls Police custody and transferred back to Bonneville County soon, where he will await trial.