Nearly 49 years after she disappeared from a Salt Lake City college campus, the killing of 18-year-old Valaine Briggs is still unsolved and still very much a part of her family’s daily life. On May 5, 1977, Briggs walked out of class at LDS Business College and never made it back. Two days later, hikers found her body in Lambs Canyon, a rugged stretch in the nearby mountains. Investigators quickly ruled her death a homicide and have periodically revisited the physical evidence as forensic tools improved. For relatives in Montana and Utah, the long silence since 1977 has felt like its own kind of punishment.
The case slid back into the national spotlight this week when "Dateline" featured it as a cold-case profile, retracing Briggs’s final hours and issuing a fresh call for tips. The segment walks through what investigators have done in recent years, including DNA testing, new looks at existing physical evidence, and additional interviews, while also underscoring the family’s decades-long search for answers, according to NBC News Dateline.
What investigators say about 1977
According to investigators, Briggs was last seen leaving a classroom at LDS Business College at about 11:20 a.m. on May 5, 1977. Her car stayed parked in the school’s lot after she failed to return. On May 7, hikers in Lambs Canyon came across a nude body and some of Briggs’s schoolbooks about a quarter mile up the canyon. Authorities later confirmed the remains were hers. The case now appears on the state’s official cold-case list as an unsolved homicide, complete with photos and the case number for reference, according to the Utah Department of Public Safety.
Cold-case leads and DNA testing
Salt Lake County detectives say they have gone back over the evidence with modern forensic tools and chased down leads as they come in, and Detective Ben Pender of the county’s cold-case unit has taken a central role on the file in recent years, local reporting shows, according to KSL. "Dateline" reports that Pender has been working the Briggs case since 2014 and that investigators have pursued DNA testing, including a voluntary sample that eliminated one man as a suspect. Officials emphasize that the investigation remains open to new information, per NBC News Dateline.
Family and community
Briggs’s relatives, including her sister Marcene Briggs Hamilton and cousin Milton Briggs, have spent years keeping her memory in public view and urging authorities to keep pushing the investigation. The case has surfaced on true-crime podcasts and in outreach efforts meant to jog memories and generate tips. Those efforts include cold-case playing-card decks that put Briggs’s photo and case details back into circulation, an approach advocates say can trigger long-buried recollections, as documented by The Deck.
Anyone with information is urged to contact Detective Ben Pender at 385-468-9816 or send a tip through the Utah Department of Public Safety’s cold-case portal. The state’s case page lists the file as number CO1977-27723 and includes an online tip form for investigators. Tips can also be routed through local law enforcement, according to the Utah Department of Public Safety.
