A husband and wife in Delta were found stabbed to death Saturday night after police rushed to their home following a frantic 911 call, and their 26-year-old son is now behind bars facing two counts of aggravated murder and aggravated kidnapping.
Police were called to a home in the 100 block of South 400 West in Delta just before 11 p.m. Saturday, according to FOX 13 News Utah. The Delta husband and wife were found stabbed to death, and their son, Rett Mikel Riding, was arrested on two counts of aggravated murder and aggravated kidnapping. Authorities had not released the victims' names as of the station's report.
A Mother's Desperate Call for Help
According to the arrest report cited by the station, the woman who called 911 said her son had been acting erratically and had tried to hold her and her husband hostage inside a backyard shed. She managed to escape from the shed and call 911, telling dispatchers, “He's coming!” as she fled.
The arrest report described an apparent struggle between the male subject and the female caller before the line went quiet, the station's report notes. What happened in the moments immediately after is not detailed in the available account, but officers arriving at the home soon found all three family members in different parts of the property.
What Officers Found at the Scene
An officer found Riding in the driveway with blood on his hands and pants, per the same account. A deputy discovered an unconscious man with a knife wound lying on the porch and began performing CPR on him. Officers also found the woman who had called 911 inside the home, suffering from a knife wound to her chest.
Riding, 26, was taken into custody at the scene. He faces two counts of aggravated murder and aggravated kidnapping, though the evidence available does not indicate whether he has entered a plea or retained an attorney.
A Violent Year, By the Numbers
The Delta killings add to what has been a closely watched year for violence in Utah, even as overall numbers trended downward. A total of 93 people died as a result of homicide in Utah in 2025, down from 100 the year before, according to KSL.com, which has compiled an annual list of the state's homicide victims for 33 years alongside the Deseret News.
Eleven people were stabbed to death across Utah in 2025, KSL reports, and 30 people statewide were killed by a spouse, domestic partner, friend or acquaintance last year, down from 34 in 2024. Firearms remained the most common method, with 55 people shot and killed during the year, a decline from 68 the year before. Twenty children died as a result of homicide in Utah in 2025, an increase from 16 the year before, according to the outlet's analysis.
No further details about the Delta case, including the names of the victims or the status of any court proceedings against Riding, had surfaced beyond what police described in the arrest report at the time of the initial report.
