Body cam footage shows man in suspected AMBER Alert, homicide strangled victim years prior

RIVERDALE, Utah (KUTV) — Just a few weeks ago, on March 24, 2025, a young woman was murdered — allegedly at the hands of her abuser.

Ricardo Trujillo-Rojel, 30, reportedly stabbed 23-year-old Mayra Catalan-Dimas before setting their trailer on fire at the Riverdale Mobile Estates and taking their two young children.

An AMBER Alert was issued after police said he went on the run. It's the latest in a string of domestic violence homicides that have rocked the state.

Chief Investigative Reporter Wendy Halloran obtained police body camera footage of a previous attack on Catalan-Dimas by Trujillo-Rojel.

Halloran found Trujillo-Rojel strangled her a few years ago.

Unified Police Officer Franco: "What happened with you guys?"

Trujillo-Rojel: "We were just fighting last night."

UPD Officer Franco: "Anything physical happen with your girlfriend today?"

Trujillo-Rojel: "No."

Under the influence of drugs, Trujillo-Rojel attacked.

"He grabbed me from the neck and um, I don't know what was going on so once he stopped grabbing me there he let me go and told me to shut up," Catalan-Dimas told officers at the time.

She said that "quite frankly," the attack lasted all night.

Catalan-Dimas finally escaped after she told him that her stomach was hurting because she was pregnant.

"He wouldn't listen to me, so I said I really had to pee and I had to ask various times and then at the end he's like 'Fine but I'm gonna take you,'" she said. He supervised her and she got away and told UPD Officer Franco that she hid behind the couch and wasn't free until morning came.

"It's just hard ... That it happened, he didn't care ... I'm 14 weeks [pregnant]."

She was only 19 years old.

Three and a half years later, in March 2025, Ricardo allegedly fatally stabbed Catalan-Dimas in the neck.

"That case was particularly heartbreaking. We know strangulation is one of the top indicators for possible lethal violence down the road," Erin Jemison said.

Jemison is the Director of Public Policy for the Utah Domestic Violence Coalition.

"We know that prosecutors need that strangulation exam evidence and just as importantly victims need that emergency healthcare it is a different kind of healthcare and a different kind of exam than you would get walking into your local emergency department for another kind of assault that you might experience."

She said that during the 2025 legislative session, two key budget requests backed by her organization were shunned — a request for $1.4 million.

Jemison says, "None of that was appropriated not even a percentage of it."

$260,000 to cover the cost of strangulation forensic exams was also rebuffed.

"Strangulation exams provide outside evidence that doesn’t depend on the victim saying over and over and over again this happened to me — and so if the prosecutor has objective evidence that doesn’t all depend on a victims testimony — that is one way to solve a really entrenched issue of it being difficult to prosecute domestic violence crimes," Jemison said.

Jemison also said strangulation forensic exams are a concrete tool that should automatically be part of public funding.

"We have amazing trained forensic nurses across the State but without funding to cover the cost for them to conduct these exams, law enforcement’s not able to investigate, prosecutors don’t get the evidence they need and really violent domestic violence offenders – abusers aren’t held accountable."

Jemison said they didn't get a reason from lawmakers, so they figured there were too many funding requests.

Trujillo-Rojel is charged with aggravated murder, which is death penalty eligible, aggravated arson, and obstruction of justice - capital first-degree felony conduct. He is being held in the Weber County Jail without bail.

Court documents state he admitted to pushing, hitting, and choking Catalan-Dimas, and that she then passed out.

He allegedly stabbed her, lit their trailer on fire, and threw the knife out of the window while he was driving on the freeway with the two children.

His court-appointed public defenders are Grant Morrison and Michael Studebaker. On the prosecution side, Deputy Weber County Attorneys Nicholas Caine and Derek Malan are listed. Attorney Brandon Merrill of the Utah Homicide Survivors entered a limited appearance as attorney for the crime victims on behalf of Mayra's mother and Mayra's two young children.

His preliminary hearing is scheduled for May 12 before Second Judicial District Court Judge Christina Ortega.