Nielsen also has been charged with obstruction of justice and desecration of a dead human body in the slaying, and faces rape charges in two other cases.

At the preliminary hearing in the Autry case Thursday, defense arguments focused on challenging the capital murder charge.

One of the circumstances under which a homicide may be tried as a capital offense is if the slaying is during or after the commission of another felony.

The prosecution contends Autry was kidnapped and possibly raped before she was killed.

Nielsen, 28, was bound over for trial on the capital murder, obstruction and desecration charges. Arraignment was set for Aug. 20 before 1st District Judge Clint Judkins.

Autry disappeared from her home in Hyrum about 4 a.m. on June 24, 2000.

Her jawbone, and a bra and shoes believed to have been hers, were unearthed May 15 at a Millville coyote research facility where Nielsen had been a maintenance worker.

Utah Medical Examiner Todd Grey testified he looked at “many hundreds of fragments of what appeared to be burned bones” and determined that about 230 of 1,300 pieces were human.

He said most were so small he could not tell which body part they belonged to. However, he identified parts of a skull, vertebra, collarbone, rib, left and right arm, thigh bone, lower leg, hand and foot “essentially a distribution of fragments throughout the body.”

County Attorney Scott Wyatt said the manager at the research facility said Nielsen operated a backhoe at the facility on Oct. 11, 2000, during a massive fire.

The manager’s affidavit said Nielsen was “running the backhoe through it (the fire) back and forth … until the manager thought it would catch fire,” Wyatt said.

Prosecutors also submitted hair samples from Trisha’s brush, which they said compared favorably with hair found on a tile scraper in Nielsen’s home.

DNA tests have not been completed on the hair samples.

Another aggravating circumstance that permits a homicide to be tried as a capital offense is a prior felony conviction by the suspect.

In 1996, Nielsen was convicted of assault by a prisoner, a third-degree felony, but the charge later was reduced to a Class A misdemeanor.

The defense argued that when the murder charge was filed and even “at the time of the alleged murder” the conviction was a misdemeanor.

The prosecution contended that a capital murder charge requires only a felony conviction, regardless of subsequent reductions.

The judge ordered attorneys to submit briefs on the point.

Prosecutors also played a tape of a conversation Nielsen and his sister had the day he was accused.

Nielsen said he was being charged with what “Dougie” was in prison for. “Dougie,” Nielsen’s nephew, is in prison for the rape and murder of a 5-year-old child.

“Murder? What?”

“It’s a long story, just get it done,” Nielsen said.

He said it was an “accident” and “It happened a while ago. Nobody knows but me.”

This story appeared in The Daily Herald on page A5.