‘I just want to find my sister’: Family remembers Kiplyn Davis 30 years after her disappearance
A photo of Kiplyn Davis is pictured in the Davis' home on Monday, April 30, 2018, in Spanish Fork.
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- Kiplyn Davis’ headstone at the Spanish Fork Cemetery is pictured on Thursday, May 1, 2025.
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A photo of Kiplyn Davis is pictured in the Davis’ home on Monday, April 30, 2018, in Spanish Fork.
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- An undated photo shows Karissa Davis Lords, right, with her sister Kiplyn Davis, left, prior to Kiplyn’s disappearance.
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- Tiaza Warden, of Provo, looks over information about local missing people during a vigil held for missing people in Utah, including Kiplyn Davis, who has been missing since 1995, on Wednesday, May 2, 2018, at the Spanish Fork City Cemetery.
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- Richard Davis holds a stack of papers of missing people in the family’s home on Monday, April 30, 2018, in Spanish Fork. A photo of Kiplyn Davis, Richard’s daughter who went missing in 1995, sits on the shelf.
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- This undated photo shows a copy of Kiplyn’s father, Richard Davis’s book “When an Angel Goes Missing.”
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- Richard Davis, Kiplyn Davis’ father, bows his head as he and other community members listen to “Amazing Grace,” performed during a vigil held for missing people in Utah, including Kiplyn Davis, who has been missing since 1995, on Wednesday, May 2, 2018, at the Spanish Fork City Cemetery.
Karissa Davis Lords may have only been 9 years old on May 2, 1995, but it’s a day that will forever be etched in her memory and one that ultimately changed her family’s life.
Her older sister, Kiplyn Davis, 15 at the time, headed off to school at Spanish Fork High that morning just like any normal day.
Lords recalled her sister waking up early for a driver’s education class.
“Kiplyn got up super early for driver’s ed, at like 4:35 ish,” she recounted. “And so I was still asleep.”
Lords didn’t get a chance to say goodbye to her sister that morning.
Later that day, her family received a call from the school saying Kiplyn had missed some classes, which she said was unusual.
“I’m thinking, ‘Why would she miss classes,'” Lords said.
She knew something wasn’t right when Kiplyn didn’t return home from school.
“Usually my sister would take care of me and help me with my homework and stuff like that. My parents were still at work,” Lords recounted.
Authorities said Kiplyn disappeared from school that day and her body was never found.
Her family, loved ones and community members conducted multiple search efforts but were unable to find her.
In 2011, Timmy Brent Olsen, Kiplyn’s former classmate, pleaded guilty to second-degree felony manslaughter for his role in killing her. He was convicted and sentenced to 15 years in prison.
Olsen initially told police that he witnessed someone else kill Kiplyn and that he only helped hide her body, but he never said where the remains were located or who else was involved.
In 2006, numerous people testified to hearing him admit that he raped and killed Kiplyn, then reportedly buried her body somewhere in Spanish Fork Canyon, the Deseret News reported at the time.
At a 2021 parole hearing, Olsen wouldn’t disclose any further information regarding the whereabouts of Kiplyn’s remains and claimed that he’d already provided authorities with all of the information that he could, the Daily Herald previously reported.
Olsen’s prison sentence is expected to conclude in February 2026.
30 years have now passed since Kiplyn went missing, but not a day goes by without Lords thinking about her.
Despite their six-year gap in age, Lords said she and her sister shared a special bond and a common love for dancing.
She fondly remembers Kiplyn as an attentive older sister who took care of her, including doing her hair and involving her in activities.
Lords described her sister as outgoing and someone who could get along with anyone.
“She was just one of those social butterflies,” Lords said. “And I was not like that as a kid. I was like a shy quiet type of person.”
Amid the hardship Lords and her family have endured over the last three decades, they have found ways to cope while keeping Kiplyn’s memory alive.
Lords said she often visits her sister’s headstone at the Spanish Fork cemetery, and her parents have kept a porchlight on as a symbol of hope that one day Kiplyn’s body is discovered.
In 2024, Kiplyn’s father, Richard Davis, wrote and released a book titled “When An Angel Leaves Your Life,” detailing the grief he and their family have dealt with since her disappearance and still not knowing where her body is decades later.
The book is available for purchase at Stone Drug in Spanish Fork or online at kiplyndavis.com.
Proceeds from sales will go toward scholarships in Kiplyn’s honor at Spanish Fork High School.
Lords also runs a Facebook page dedicated to finding Kiplyn’s body where she has encouraged people to light a candle and post it on social media Friday to observe 30 years since her sister vanished and in honor of other missing and murdered individuals.
“To show the families that we care and love them, because they’re not alone,” Lords said.
She also expressed gratitude for the local community because of their support throughout the years.
The Spanish Fork Police Department said the case remains active and anyone with information is asked to reach out to their detectives at (801) 798-5070.
Lords said she and her family are holding on to hope that someday the long-awaited answer that leads them to Kiplyn’s remains comes to light.
“I just want to find my sister,” she stated.
