A 21-year-old Utah woman has been arrested for her friend’s murder in what investigators believe to be an uncompleted suicide pact the pair had been planning for several weeks.
Heavenly Faith Garfield, of Saratoga Springs, was booked into the Utah County Jail after police received a report just before 3:30 p.m. Tuesday that a “21-year-old female was dead inside the house and had died from a gunshot wound,” according to an affidavit obtained by KSL.
Responding officers found Garfield, the deceased friend — who has not been publicly named — and Garfield’s father, who made the 911 call and said the victim had been shot around 10:45 a.m.
A 9mm bullet was also found near the victim’s body, KUTV reported.
“Detectives learned that the deceased 21-year-old female allegedly had a suicide pact with Heavenly Faith Garfield and had been planning on killing themselves together for multiple weeks,” the affidavit states.
More context was uncovered when investigators contacted another friend of the victim, who “was able to provide text messages he had received from the victim stating that she intended on committing suicide, but was too scared to kill herself.”
“The friend told detectives that the victim had also told him that she intended to commit suicide with her friend, whom he identified as Heavenly Faith, and that one of them would kill the other, and then kill themselves,” police said.
Family members interviewed by investigators also stated that Garfield had been discussing the pact with the victim for several weeks.
Garfield remains in jail without bail and faces charges of murder and discharge of a firearm.
