Estimated read time: 5-6 minutes
- Newly released video footage shows West Valley police handling a welfare check before a family murder-suicide.
- Former Deputy Chief Chris Bertram suggests officers missed opportunities to investigate further.
- West Valley police emphasize they found no evidence to justify further action.
WEST VALLEY CITY — Newly released body camera footage obtained exclusively by KSL Investigators provides a closer look at how West Valley police handled a welfare check at a home where five family members were killed in December.
A 911 call brought officers to the home just after 11 p.m. on Dec. 16. Family members asked for a welfare check after not being able to reach anyone inside the home for several days.
The body camera footage reveals officers arrived within 15 minutes of the call and spent almost an hour at the scene.
They found the family's two cars in the driveway, pets inside, and several lights left on. Officers knocked on doors, windows, and the garage door, and canvassed the neighborhood. No one had heard from the family of six in three days.
They checked traffic cameras and license plate readers to see where the cars had last been spotted. Cellphone pings indicated the family's phones had not left the area in days, and their shoes were all left at the front door.
But police officers did not see or smell anything they believed gave them enough reason to break into the home.
"There have been like 75-80% of these that just seem really weird," one officer is heard saying, "but for whatever reason they didn't tell family."
The next day, officers were called back to the home, where they discovered five members of the family dead in a murder-suicide, and one teenager injured, but still alive.
Chris Bertram, a former deputy chief who retired from the Unified Police Department after 34 years of experience in law enforcement, said the officers did a lot right that first night. But he believes they missed one major opportunity: climbing the fence and going into the backyard.
Bertram said the community care doctrine allows officers to go into places they normally wouldn't have the right to enter without a warrant to ensure public safety. In the case of this welfare check, he said officers had plenty of reason.
"It's been three days," he said. "There are there are multiple people in the house that have not been seen."
Some other misses Bertram pointed to were the fact officers did not try to open the windows or use a ladder to look into the living room window, where two of the family members' bodies were later found.
"I would say the great cops were the ones that paid attention to the 20% and became heroes," he said.
Officers discussed the odd circumstances during the welfare check.
"My mind goes to, like, you know, it could be some sort of murder-suicide could have happened, but there's no evidence of that," one said.
"Again, if they are in there, there's no bullet hole through the glass, there's no blood on the wall," another officer responded.
"I'm not seeing or smelling anything. If they're just deceased inside, they're not going to be any more deceased," said an officer.
Police told the family there was nothing more they could do that night.
"I'm sorry you guys are going through this. I know it's hard," an officer told the loved one who requested the welfare check.
Bertram said if officers ever have questions on scene, they can call a city attorney for advice.
"'Here's what I'm faced with. Do you think we have the right to go in there?' Let the attorney weigh in on what they're doing," Bertram said.
The following afternoon, on Dec. 17, a family friend climbed the fence, found the back door open, and discovered someone inside the garage.
"(He was) just kind of rocking back and forth and wouldn't, wouldn't acknowledge us, wouldn't speak to us, but I didn't feel comfortable approaching him," the friend told the 911 operator.
When West Valley police arrived, they waited over 5 minutes for the fire department to bring a ladder to get over the fence.
Police found 17-year-old Sha Reh shot on the garage floor. He had been alone for the past four days. Inside the home, officers found the rest of his family dead.
West Valley police later reported the father had killed his wife Bu Meh, 38, and their three children: Son Boe Reh, 11, and daughters Kristina Ree, 8, and Nyaya Meh, 2, sometime between late Friday and early Saturday, Dec. 14. Police said Dae Reh, 42, then took his own life.
Bertram does not believe any officer should be disciplined for not doing more the night of the welfare check but hopes it's something everyone can learn from.
"The experience that they had with this case and the institutional cultural experience of that whole department, they will probably make different decisions in the future," Bertram said.
KSL asked West Valley police about Bertram's analysis.
In a statement, Roxeanne Vainuku, the city's deputy cirector of communications, wrote:
"Officers who responded to a welfare check at the Oxford Way home spent more than an hour there knocking on doors, searching for information, talking to neighbors, and looking for any evidence that something was amiss. They were able to see into the fenced backyard of the home, as well as into many windows. Still, nothing was evident to indicate the tragic events that we now know had already occurred.
"This tragedy was ultimately discovered by a family friend who climbed a fence into the family's backyard and entered the family's garage. Neither of which police could do without evidence of exigent circumstances.
"The benefit of hindsight allows us to know exactly what had happened in that home, but that was not information officers had at the time, nor did they have any evidence to suggest the heinous act of violence that we now know had taken place. There was no history at this home. No domestic violence. Nothing to suggest that this could have been anything more than adults' choosing, as they have the right to do, to not check in with their families for a few days.
Our officers did all they could, and like our entire community, wish this had never happened. Cases such as this remind us of the challenges officers face in serving and protecting. We are grateful for their hard work and for their efforts to process and investigate what has been a very difficult and heartbreaking case for everyone involved.
Sha Reh has since been released from the hospital and is expected to enroll in the Utah Schools for the Deaf and the Blind due to new vision loss from his injury that prevents him from seeing clearly.
