Utah man charged with killing his girlfriend found dead in Oregon park

A man accused of murdering his girlfriend inside her Utah home has been found dead in Oregon, police said.

A U.S. Forest Service Ranger discovered the body of Michael Grant Asman on Monday in Wallowa State Park near Joseph, Oregon, Heber Police Department announced Tuesday. The ranger initially spotted Asman’s white Chevrolet pickup truck around 12:45 p.m., and his body was about 100 yards away.

Based on a preliminary investigation, authorities believe he died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

“In the state he was in, it was believed he had been there for about two weeks or so,” Heber City Police detective Joshua Weishar told People.

An autopsy is slated to take place on Wednesday.

News of Asman’s death comes just more than a month after his 36-year-old girlfriend Julie Burns was fatally shot inside her Heber City home. Police said her two young daughters, ages 6 and 10, were present when their mother was murdered on July 14. After firing off the fatal shot, Asman allegedly told the young girls to cover their eyes before he walked them past their mom’s body out of the house, according to police documents obtained by ABC4.

Asman had been on the run ever since the incident and authorities spanning several agencies, including the United States Marshals, the Major Crimes Task Force assisted in the manhunt.

A motive behind the slaying is unknown and may forever remain a mystery now that Asman is dead, Weishar said.

“It is always good to have some whys and answer some questions as to what happened,” he says. “Now we don’t have any side of it. With both parties being deceased, at this point we don’t know exactly what happened other than evidentiary stuff. We won’t be able to get a verbal recant of what happened on that day.”

“It’s a tragic outcome all around,” he added.

At the time of Burns’ death, Asman was facing charges including aggravated assault and assault after she accused him of attacking her in June, according to KSL. The court in response granted her a protective order against Asman and ordered him to wear an ankle monitor, which he cut off after his girlfriend’s murder.