1861
The town was settled in 1861 as a cotton mission, which is why it became known as Utah's Dixie; cotton never became a successful crop.
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FILE 705 / 4 June 2026 / 182 MIN / full
This is St. George, Utah. It's in southwestern Utah, like all the way in the corner there... this is in Washington county. about 0:05:22
The town was settled in 1861 as a cotton mission, which is why it became known as Utah's Dixie; cotton never became a successful crop.
about 0:07:18The settlement is named after George A. Smith, an LDS church apostle.
about 0:08:21In 1877 the LDS church completed the St. George Utah Temple, its third temple and the oldest still in active use in Utah.
about 0:08:28In the early 1950s St. George received most of the fallout from above-ground nuclear testing at Yucca Flats in Nevada, and cancer rates rose from the mid-1950s until the early 1980s.
about 0:08:45The town was settled in 1861 as a cotton mission, which is why it became known as Utah's Dixie; cotton never became a successful crop.
about 0:07:18The settlement is named after George A. Smith, an LDS church apostle.
about 0:08:21In 1877 the LDS church completed the St. George Utah Temple, its third temple and the oldest still in active use in Utah.
about 0:08:28In the early 1950s St. George received most of the fallout from above-ground nuclear testing at Yucca Flats in Nevada, and cancer rates rose from the mid-1950s until the early 1980s.
about 0:08:45In 1980 People magazine reported that 91 of about 220 cast and crew who filmed The Conqueror near St. George in 1956 had developed cancer.
about 0:10:00In 1992 an earthquake destroyed three houses and a lot of utility infrastructure.
about 0:10:46In 2005 a hundred-year flood killed one person and destroyed 28 homes.
about 0:10:5778%
Biggest faith: Mormon, 70.4%
about 0:15:26White 80.7% · Black 0.8% · Asian 0.8% · Hispanic 13%
Ethnicity can overlap race.Property crime
▼ a little bit below average
Violent crime
▼ about half
Murders
none in four years
Two-bedroom, one-bath trailer, 1,050 square feet
about 0:17:53Three-bedroom, two-bath house, 1,039 square feet
about 0:18:27Four-bedroom, four-bath house, 4,340 square feet
about 0:19:20"a little bit below average"
Comparison: "national average". Direction: below.
As told in 2026 about 0:23:29
"about half"
Comparison: "national average". Direction: below.
As told in 2026 about 0:23:37
"none in four years"
Comparison: "before 1990". No direction stated.
As told in 2026 about 0:45:51
"92,875"
No direction stated.
As told in 2026 about 0:14:14
"28,502"
No direction stated.
As told in 2026 about 0:14:17
"49,000"
No direction stated.
As told in 2026 about 0:14:30
"51%"
Comparison: "more women than men". No direction stated.
As told in 2026 about 0:14:39
"37.9"
Comparison: "right about the national average". Direction: about the same.
As told in 2026 about 0:14:43
"59.7%"
No direction stated.
As told in 2026 about 0:14:52
"80.7%"
No direction stated.
As told in 2026 about 0:15:04
"0.8%"
No direction stated.
As told in 2026 about 0:15:04
"0.8%"
No direction stated.
As told in 2026 about 0:15:04
"0.9%"
No direction stated.
As told in 2026 about 0:15:26
"13%"
No direction stated.
As told in 2026 about 0:15:26
"43%"
Comparison: "US population; the town is a lot higher". Direction: above.
As told in 2026 about 0:10:35
"78%"
Comparison: "50-50 is as high as the show has heard". Direction: above.
As told in 2026 about 0:15:26
"70.4%"
No direction stated.
As told in 2026 about 0:15:40
"$63,604"
Comparison: "below the national average". Direction: below.
As told in 2026 about 0:16:10
"110"
Comparison: "100 is average". Direction: above.
As told in 2026 about 0:16:21
"$485,000"
Comparison: "above the national average by $150,000". Direction: above.
As told in 2026 about 0:16:45
"$1,270"
Comparison: "right at the national average". Direction: about the same.
As told in 2026 about 0:17:12
"$81,000"
Comparison: "after a $19,000 price cut, 20% off". No direction stated.
As told in 2026 about 0:17:53
"$293,000"
Comparison: "after a $5,000 price cut". No direction stated.
As told in 2026 about 0:18:27
"$1,169,000"
Comparison: "after a $50,000 price cut". No direction stated.
As told in 2026 about 0:19:20
3.0 / 5 · average of 6
“Born and raised here and still living here; a great in-between of small town and plenty to do, with variety of residents, good schools, sports teams and job opportunities. Hence five stars.”about 0:11:32
“Very friendly town for someone wanting to settle, but if you want nightlife or fun activities it is really not the place.”about 0:12:06
“Very family friendly, but everyone is caught up in keeping up with the Joneses, a big Mormon thing; everyone seems copy and paste.”about 0:12:32
“St. George wins the award for most hated city for domesticated animals; hard to rent with a pet, people on trails point guns at hikers' dogs, and the police do not care.”about 0:12:48
“An incredible discovery, educational and fun, good for kids and adults; actual dinosaur footprints and impressions of skin, an excellent selection of books, and more than an hour planned.”about 0:21:35
“Very disappointing, mud tracks only, no dinosaurs.”about 0:22:08
Janice Elaine Fondrin was born on April 20th, 1960 in Moncks Corner, South Carolina, one of three children of John and Betty Joe Fondrin. Her mother worked for the county supervisors and retired as Berkeley County's finance director, so the family was comfortably middle class. Janice sang in the school choir, was a cheerleader, and was remembered as an outgoing, happy girl. She studied nursing at the Medical University of South Carolina in Charleston, paying her own way by working as an aide in a nursing home, and graduated with a bachelor's degree in nursing. Her teachers called her an excellent student, and she won two scholarships from the state and local chapters of the Business and Professional Women's organisation. She spent a few months in Las Vegas, found it too much, and in 1989 settled in St. George, Utah, where she became a licensed registered nurse at the St. George Care Center. She was a private woman who never talked about herself, named her cat Rambo, and telephoned her mother four or five times a week. In May 1990 she was promoted to director of nursing.
He was an Eagle Scout, served a two-year LDS mission in Switzerland, and took a zoology degree at Southern Utah State College in Cedar City. He taught junior high science in Tuba City, Arizona, for about six months in 1983 and 1984, spent two months as a deputy in Mohave County, Arizona, in 1986, and was a licensed EMT. In 1987 he moved to St. George to be near his parents while his father's health failed, and worked about ten hours a week as a home health aide, first for Mesa View Extended Home Care and later for the St. George Surgical and Medical Clinic. His father died of a heart attack in November 1988.
He sent her bouquets of roses, turned up at her desk, and in April 1989, after about six months, they married. Nancy moved out three weeks later. In June 1989 she filed for divorce and a restraining order on the same day, and the divorce was final that September. He appeared at her home and her workplace, telephoned, pushed and shoved her, and left notes under her windscreen wiper. Meanwhile Janice Fondrin and Nancy became best friends, and Janice urged Nancy to stand up to her ex-husband and to call the police every time he breached the order.
Janice got in his face and shouted at him to leave Nancy alone, and several witnesses heard it. The next day she obtained a restraining order of her own, and on July 21st she filed a complaint. A witness heard a vehicle between two and half past two and saw a man doing something to Janice's car, which was backed up to her front door. Janice came downstairs; he shot her once in the chest, and she died within a minute. He wrapped her in a bedspread, carried her out, put her in the boot of her own Thunderbird, wiped some of the blood from the walls, and drove west.
At about three o'clock another witness saw a man park Janice's car in her space. Later that morning Janice did not arrive at work. Nancy Snow rang her house, got no answer, drove over, and found the townhome in disarray, with the kitchen screen damaged and blood visible inside. She went straight to the St. George Police Department and said her best friend was missing, and that she thought her ex-husband had done it. Police found a large amount of blood on the living room carpet, blood on the front door, the tile and the porch, a bullet hole in the front window, and a nine millimetre shell casing in the kitchen.
The body was found on July 26th, 150 feet off Camp Springs Road, about 15 miles west of St. George on the Shivwits reservation, in the middle of the night. Janice had been shot and had been dead before she left her apartment. Two blankets from her house, her pink pyjamas and her underwear lay nearby, along with a beer can. Her car had black brush in the wheel wells, a desert plant that grows where she was found, which is how police narrowed the search. His bail was set at $500,000, and the judge refused him appointed counsel because of the guns he had inherited from his father.
In September 1990 he was sent to the forensic unit of the state hospital for evaluation. His lawyer, Alan D. Boyack, a former Green Beret, pt, one-time Mohave County coroner and flamboyant local defence attorney, built a defence of involuntary intoxication.
He was freed in August 2020 and went back to St. George. Within a month Janice's mother Betty Joe died. Phone messages showed him negotiating purchases, and a search found a nine millimetre handgun and thousands of rounds. Janice is buried at Berkeley Memorial Gardens in Moncks Corner, South Carolina.
July 22nd, 1990 / her townhome at the Colorview town homes, St. George, Utah
As told in the episode, on 4 June 2026.
Accused
June 19th, 1988 / her mobile home in Hurricane, Utah
As told in the episode, on 4 June 2026.
Accused
Public places are marked on the map.
crime scene
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about 0:29:44body found
about 1:38:48road
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about 0:21:02hospital
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