Utah | Ralph Menzies dies on death row less than 3 months after his execution was called off

Judge was set to consider arguments in December about Menzies’ mental fitness 

Ralph Menzies, who spent more than 3 decades on Utah’s death row for the 1986 murder of Maurine Hunsaker, has died. 

Menzies, 67, died of “presumed natural causes at a local hospital” Wednesday afternoon, according to the Utah Department of Corrections. 

Matt Hunsaker, Maurine Hunsaker’s son, said Menzies’ death “was a complete surprise.” 

“First off, I’d say that I’m numb. And second off, I would say, grateful,” Hunsaker told Utah News Dispatch. “I’m grateful that my family does not have to endure this for the holidays.” 

Hunsaker continued, “It’s over. It’s over.” 

Menzies killed the 26-year-old Hunsaker nearly 4 decades ago after kidnapping her from her job at a gas station in Kearns. He tied her to a tree in Big Cottonwood Canyon, strangled her and slit her throat, prosecutors said. She was found by a hiker days later. 

Menzies had been scheduled to be executed by firing squad earlier this year, on Sept. 5. As the date drew closer, his attorneys argued his dementia had worsened. He had been diagnosed with vascular dementia, caused when the brain’s blood flow is disrupted, leading to memory loss and declining cognitive function, according to court testimony. 

The Utah Supreme Court court called off the execution roughly a week before it was scheduled to take place. In a written opinion, the justices said there was enough evidence to warrant another competency evaluation. 

A judge was set to consider new reports from psychologists who evaluated Menzies in recent weeks during a multi-day court hearing that had been scheduled to start Dec. 9. Ahead of that hearing, a forensic psychologist said in an evaluation that Menzies was “not competent to be executed.” That report was one of several that were to be considered by a judge.  

Menzies’ attorneys said in a statement that they are grateful “that Ralph passed naturally and maintained his spiritedness and dignity until the end.” 

They said their client was “deeply loved by his family, friends, legal team and by everyone who knew him well. In his later years, he devoted himself to helping others in every way he could.” 

Citing privacy reasons, both Menzies’ legal team and the Utah Division of Correctional Health Services declined to provide more details about his death or say exactly when and where he was hospitalized. 

He was brought to a hospital at some point this week, said Josh Loftin, division spokesperson. 

In 2019, Ron Lafferty similarly died of natural causes while on Utah’s death row for the 1984 killings of Brenda Lafferty and her toddler, Erica Lafferty. 

The last death row inmate to be executed in Utah was Taberon Honie, 48, who was executed by lethal injection in 2024. He was the 1st person to be put to death in the state in 14 years.

Source: utahnewsdispatch.com, Staff, November 27, 2025

"One is absolutely sickened, not by the crimes that the wicked have committed,
but by the punishments that the good have inflicted."

— Oscar Wilde