Utah Tinder Date Turns Deadly in Layton, Ending in Murder

Ethan Hunsaker, a 24-year-old man from Layton, Utah, is accused of stabbing a woman to death on a Tinder date, in what police described as an unprovoked attack.

The motive remains unclear. Arrest records described horrific details, saying that Hunsaker is accused of having “watched the victim bleed out for approximately 10 minutes before calling 911 to turn himself in,” KUTV reported.

According to a news release from the Layton, Utah police department, on May 24, 2020, at 3:19 a.m., Layton police dispatch received a 911 call from Ethan Hunsaker, a 24-year-old male. Hunsaker reported having killed a person inside his residence near 1300 N. Reid Avenue, police wrote.

Here’s what you need to know:

1. Police Found the Female Victim With Stab Wounds to Her Torso

Officers responded to the address and made contact with Hunsaker. They located a female “lying on the floor of the home, having sustained multiple stab wounds to the torso,” the news release stated.

“Despite efforts to revive the victim, she was pronounced deceased on scene. Hunsaker was cooperative with law enforcement and was taken into custody without incident.”

KUTV obtained arrest records that showed Hunsaker’s home lacked furniture and that Hunsaker is accused of having “intimate relations” with the woman before waking up and attacking her. He used a “spring assisted pocket knife” from the kitchen, kneeling over the woman and stabbing her, according to the television station.

“Ethan stated he stabbed (the woman) more than five times, but no more than 10 times. Ethan stated he watched (the woman) bleed through the stab wounds. (The woman) was left laying on her stomach where she died in the bedroom,” Deseret News quoted the police affidavit.

2. Hunsaker Is Accused of Telling Police He Met the Victim on Tinder in the Late Evening Hours

Jail recordsEthan Hunsaker

The victim and Hunsaker were new acquaintances, authorities say. According to police, Hunsaker reported “having met the female victim on Tinder, a dating application, on the late evening hours of May 23.”

“Ethan did not know her last name. Ethan started communicating with the victim on a Tinder application beginning around 9 p.m., on Saturday. Ethan picked the victim up from her home. The two went to a local bar in Layton City to have some alcoholic drinks,” the police affidavit said, according to Gephardt Daily.

Police said they were still investigating the motive, but they added that the attack “appears to have been unprovoked.” The victim’s name has not been released, but she was described as a 25-year-old female.

Hunsaker was booked into the Davis County Jail on one count of Murder, a 1st Degree felony, according to police. Jail records show that he is being held without bail.

3. Hunsaker Is Accused of Confessing That He Also Choked The Woman & Only Knew Her First Name

Hunsaker is also accused of admitting he murdered the woman “by choking and stabbing her,” according to KUTV.

The television station reported that he told police he learned the victim’s first name through Tinder.

The television station added that the pair had known each other for less than 24 hours and started the night out around 9 p.m. with drinks at a local bar. They then headed to Hunsaker’s house, according to KUTV.

The station said Hunsaker described choking the woman before stabbing her “for as hard as he could for one minute.” When he called 911, Hunsaker is accused of telling dispatchers that he had “just killed someone,” according to Gephardt Daily. “Ethan stated to dispatch he ‘did not know’ the person he had just killed, but had met the victim on a dating application called Tinder.”

4. Hunsaker Has Mental Health Diagnoses, Reports Say

The KUTV report added that Hunsaker told officers he was “diagnosed with mental health illnesses ” and had homicidal and suicidal thoughts.

He is on prescription medication. The report didn’t specify the illnesses.

Hunsaker told the 911 dispatcher he wanted officers to kill him, according to Gephardt Daily.

5. Hunsaker Is Accused of Saying He Attacked the Woman as They Were ‘Cuddling or Spooning’

The details in the arrest affidavit are terrible.

Deseret News reported that Hunsaker told police he woke up “with the woman laying on his arm ‘as they were cuddling or spooning'” and then attacked her.

The woman tried to defend herself to no avail.

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