The FBI, along with the Bureau of Indian Affairs and the Uintah County Sheriff’s Office, are investigating the homicide of an adult male from Vernal, Utah. The incident happened in the Whiterocks community, on the Uinta and Ouray Indian Reservation on June 26, 2025.

Leroy Casper Poowegup Reed, an enrolled member of the Ute Indian Tribe, was taken into tribal custody. A federal arrest warrant has been issued for Reed, who is charged by criminal complaint with murder in the second-degree while within Indian Country.

According to the complaint, a deceased individual was found in a running vehicle with an arrow impaled in his neck. Further investigation by the BIA and Uintah County Sheriff’s Office led to Reed, who was arrested at his residence in the Whiterocks community.

A defendant is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.