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Provo police reopen Marla Scharp homicide case after evidence casts doubt on confessor Henry Lee Lucas

Provo • For the last 41 years, Leah Scharp thought her older sister Marla had been killed by notorious serial killer Henry Lee Lucas.

That belief, like her sister’s untimely death, was a hard truth to swallow, but knowing the person responsible for the slaying had been caught gave her some sense of justice.

That all changed last month, when Karra Porter with the Utah Cold Case Coalition presented the Scharps with a thick stack of investigative files and a PowerPoint presentation that convinced them Marla’s death couldn’t have been committed by Lucas.

The Provo Police Department was apparently similarly persuaded.