An Iowa man goes back to a Utah court this month. He is charged with killing three women. Two were killed on a hiking trail. One was killed in her own home.

Ivan Miller is 22. He is from Blakesburg, Iowa. He faces three counts of aggravated murder. In Utah that is a first-degree felony. It can mean 5 years to life in prison. It can also mean death.

The Wayne County attorney, Michael Winn, says he will seek the death penalty. Winn told reporters he plans to file that notice. Wayne County is small and rural. County leaders have said they will need help from the state to pay for the case.

Miller has not entered a plea. His next hearing is set for September 21 at 1:30 p.m. It is a waiver hearing. Judge Mandy Larsen has the case in the 6th District Court. The court sits in the town of Loa.

The killings happened on March 4. That is more than six months ago.

The Utah Department of Public Safety laid out the day in a press release. At 4:25 p.m., two women were found dead near the Cocks Comb trailhead. The trailhead sits off Teasdale Road in Wayne County. It is close to Capitol Reef National Park.

That same evening, deputies found a third woman dead at a home in Lyman. Lyman is a small town about 10 miles away.

State police named the three women. Margaret Oldroyd was 86. She lived in Lyman. Linda Dewey was 65. Natalie Graves was 34. Dewey and Graves were aunt and niece. They were hiking together.

State police say Miller did not know any of them. Officers said he picked them for what they called convenience. There was nothing linking the two hikers to Oldroyd, police said.

The family of Dewey and Graves put out a statement. They called the trail one of their favorite places on Earth. They called it a safe sanctuary. "They were murdered. We cannot comprehend why this happened," the family said.

The town of Torrey grieved in public. Neighbors tied pink ribbons up and down the county. The mayor of Torrey, Mickey Wright, spoke about one of the women. "She was like everybody around here, a very good person," he said.

Court papers spell out what police say Miller told them.

It started with a truck and an elk. Miller hit an elk near Loa on February 28. His truck was wrecked. He sold it to a tow company. He stayed at a hotel nearby for a few days. Then he had no way home.

Police say he slept in a shed on Oldroyd's property. He saw her Buick LeSabre. He waited behind a door inside her house. Then he shot her in the back of the head while she watched TV. He dragged her body to the basement and took her car, court papers say.

Police say he drove that Buick to the trailhead. He left it there. Then he walked up on two women getting out of a white Subaru. He shot the younger one in the chest. He shot the older one twice and stabbed her, court papers say. He dragged both bodies to a dry creek bed.

Officers found three spent .45 caliber shells at the scene. They also found a spent shotgun shell.

Miller told police it "had to be done," court papers say. He said he did not like doing it. He said he needed money and a car to get home to Iowa.

The manhunt crossed three states. Police used plate reader cameras to follow the stolen Subaru. They tracked it through southern Utah. Then into northern Arizona. Then into southern Colorado.

Pagosa Springs police caught him at about 2:40 a.m. He gave up without a fight. Officers found a hidden handgun and a big knife on him.

A long list of agencies worked the case. The Utah State Bureau of Investigation ran the lead. The Wayne County Sheriff's Office helped. So did sheriff's offices in Sevier, Kane and Archuleta counties. So did the FBI, the Bureau of Land Management, the Page police in Arizona and the Pagosa Springs police in Colorado.

"The swift resolution of this case was achieved through the collaborative efforts of multiple agencies," the state said in its release.

Miller sat in a Colorado jail for weeks. He faced charges there too, including car theft and carrying a hidden gun. At first he fought being sent back. Later he waived extradition.

He made his first Utah court appearance on May 29. He appeared by video from the Sevier County jail. The judge read him his rights. She found he had no money for a lawyer. She named two court-appointed defense lawyers to the case. One of them is Neal Hamilton.

Miller was not a stranger to police before March. Iowa rangers arrested him at Lake Wapello State Park on December 31. They said he had broken into a cabin three days earlier. He was charged with second-degree burglary and with theft, marijuana and gun counts.

An Iowa court let him out on January 13. He did not have to post bail. He only had to promise to come back to court. His Iowa arraignment was set for March 6. He missed it. By then he was in a jail cell in Colorado.

Everyone is presumed innocent until proved otherwise.