Why is Holladay, Utah so murdery?

Holladay sits in Salt Lake County, about twenty minutes from downtown Salt Lake City, a suburb on the edge of the city sprawl with a population near 30,800. The show's map of the area is generous: ten murders in four episodes, spread across four towns, from Holladay itself out to American Fork and Pleasant Grove at twenty miles. Only two of the ten happen in Holladay, which is enough for 109th overall and third in Utah.

James and Jimmie open with the town's nineteenth century founding family and a stagecoach magnate before anyone is murdered, which sets the tone. The ten victims fall on eight dates between 1978 and 2014, two cases to an episode, so the tally is spread thin rather than piled into one era. Episode 166 carries four victims, two fifths of the count; the other three episodes add two each.

It is worth saying plainly that this is a count of the show's cases, not a crime rate. The show chooses the towns, and a suburb this close to a city will keep turning up.