Utah News Dispatch
After decades on death row, Ralph Menzies dies of natural causes instead of firing squad
A corrections officer wheels in Ralph Menzies during his commutation hearing before the parole board at the Utah State Correctional Facility in Salt Lake City as he petitions to stop his execution by firing squad on Wednesday, Aug. 13, 2025. (Pool photo by Bethany Baker/The Salt Lake Tribune)
One of Utah’s longest running death penalty cases ended quietly Wednesday, with Ralph Menzies drawing his final breath in a hospital rather than an execution chamber.
Menzies, who spent more than three decades on death row for the 1986 murder of Maurine Hunsaker, died of “presumed natural causes at a local hospital” at 1:45 p.m., according to the Utah Department of Corrections. He was 67.
The final chapter in the case revolved around Menzies’ diagnosis of vascular dementia and whether it robbed him of an understanding of why the state planned to execute him.
The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that a person can’t be put to death if they can’t rationally understand why, because society isn’t getting the retribution it seeks.
Uncertainty about Menzies’ legal competency postponed his execution indefinitely at the end of the summer. At the time, Matt Hunsaker said he was distraught and disappointed he would not see his mother’s killer put to death as planned. But he felt differently Wednesday.
That Menzies died before the state could execute him left Hunsaker with a sense of relief and closure that the saga was finished, even though he said his family did not get justice.
He said word of Menzies’ death reached his family while they were on vacation in Florida and “was a complete surprise.”
“First off, I’d say that I’m numb. And second off, I would say, grateful,” Hunsaker told Utah News Dispatch. “I’m grateful that my family does not have to endure this for the holidays.”
Hunsaker continued, “It’s over. It’s over.” He added that he’s praying for Menzies’ family as they grieve.
He was 10 years old when Menzies killed 26-year-old Maurine Hunsaker after kidnapping her from her job at a gas station in Kearns and taking her to Bog Cottonwood Canyon, where he tied her to a tree, strangled her and slit her throat, prosecutors said. She was found by a hiker days later.
On Wednesday, Matt Hunsaker fought emotion as he said, “I just hope she’s proud of me. I hope she’s proud of holding — for our fight to the end.”
Menzies chose to die by firing squad instead of lethal injection and had been scheduled to be put to death on Sept. 5. As the date drew closer, his attorneys argued his dementia had worsened. He had been diagnosed with vascular dementia, caused when the brain’s blood flow is disrupted, leading to memory loss and declining cognitive function, according to court testimony.
A state evaluator says Ralph Menzies is too ill with dementia to be executed
The Utah Supreme Court court called off the execution roughly a week before it was scheduled to take place. In a written opinion, the justices said there was enough evidence to warrant another competency evaluation.
A judge was set to consider new reports from psychologists who evaluated Menzies in recent weeks during a multi-day court hearing that had been scheduled to start Dec. 9. Ahead of that hearing, a forensic psychologist said in an evaluation that Menzies was “not competent to be executed.” That report was one of several that were to be considered.
Utah Attorney General Derek Brown, whose office fought in court until Wednesday to defend the planned execution, said the state’s pursuit of justice “has been long and filled with pain, far more than any victim’s family should ever have to endure. Now as Ralph Menzies faces his final judgment, we hope this moment brings a measure of peace and closure to Maurine’s family.”
Menzies’ attorneys said in a statement that they are grateful “that Ralph passed naturally and maintained his spiritedness and dignity until the end.”
They said their client was “deeply loved by his family, friends, legal team and by everyone who knew him well. In his later years, he devoted himself to helping others in every way he could.”
Citing privacy reasons, both Menzies’ legal team and the Utah Division of Correctional Health Services declined to provide more details about his death or say exactly when and where he was hospitalized.
He was brought to a hospital at some point this week, said Josh Loftin, division spokesperson.
In 2019, Ron Lafferty similarly died of natural causes while on Utah’s death row for the 1984 killings of Brenda Lafferty and her toddler, Erica Lafferty.
The last death row inmate to be executed in Utah was Taberon Honie, 48, who died by lethal injection in 2024. He was the first person to be put to death in the state in 14 years.
