John Pinder was a bad dude. He “was convicted on eleven felony counts in connection with the murders” of two people. State v. Pinder, 114 P.3d 551 (Utah 2005). His mom and dad were not accused, but their property was seized by the state as part of its investigation of their son, and although some of it was used as evidence against him, some of it wasn’t.
But either way, that property was never returned:
Over the years, government officials gave several reasons for not returning the property. For example, they said that: (1) they needed the seized property for John Pinder‘s ―ongoing criminal case‖; (2) the seized property belonged to John—not to Robert and Virginia; (3) prosecutors needed the seized property in case ―additional charges [were] brought against John Pinder, based upon investigations . . . on cold cases; and (4) prosecutors needed it in case John Pinder was ―granted a new trial.‖3 According to the Pinders, in 2010, a Duchesne County attorney even told the Pinders‘ attorney that they “would get the guns back over his dead body.”
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Pinder v. Duchesne, No. 20181026 (Utah Oct. 22, 2020)