A woman trapped in a burning storage shed in 2023 was the victim of a “tragic accident,” DA concludes

MURRAY – After hundreds of hours of investigation by city, state and federal officials, hundreds of pages of written reports and more than $100,000 spent in an investigation that spanned more than a year, the Salt Lake County District Attorney’s Office announced Friday That no charges would be filed in the 2023 death of a woman who was found locked in a burning storage shed.

Instead, Sim Gill says the death of 27-year-old Morgan Kay Harris appears to have been “an accidental tragic loss of life.”

On February 18, 2023, a fire was reported at a small storage unit at 4608 S. 900 East. A padlock on the door prevented the fire department from entering immediately. The bodies of Harris and her dog were discovered inside.

Alexander Paul Wardell, 30 – Harris’ boyfriend, who is believed to have been living in the shed with her – was arrested for investigation of manslaughter and kidnapping. Police say Wardell admitted putting Harris in the storage unit, locking the door and then leaving.

However, after an extensive investigation involving the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and Gill sending two of his principal deputies to Maryland where fire tests were conducted over several days on a replica storage unit, the district attorney said Friday, that investigators concluded it was “unlikely” that Wardell intentionally set the fire.

While the cause of the fire remains “undetermined,” Gill said the prevailing theories are that a cigarette or candle lit in the shed set a wicker basket on fire, which quickly spread to numerous other combustible materials stacked in the small room . The district attorney noted that the storage unit had no electricity, heat or windows and was pitch black with the door closed. He said there was evidence of other candles previously lit in the storage unit and a lighter was found in Harris’ pocket.

Likewise, the state medical examiner was unable to determine Harris’ manner of death. Harris was reportedly “dazed” when Wardell left the shed to get groceries at a nearby store. The fire quickly filled the room with carbon monoxide. Gill says Harris’ autopsy showed her blood had a carbon monoxide level of 73% at the time of her death. Typically 30 to 40% would incapacitate a person and 50% would kill a person.

“She becomes compromised to the point where the intensity of the fire actually melts the chair into her thigh,” Gill said. “She is unresponsive at this point.”

Why Harris was so incapacitated and did not appear to move from the chair she was sitting in when the fire broke out is another question that will likely never be answered, Gill said. As for the discovery of her body on the floor near the locked door, the coroner’s final report states that “her final position near the door may only coincide with her collapse and not be the result of an escape attempt.” If she never attempted to escape, the lock on the door plays no role in her manner of death.

Even if there wasn’t a padlock on the door, investigators don’t believe she would have made it, Gill said.

As for why they put a lock on the door that could only be opened from the outside, Gill said the investigation shows that Harris and Wardell simply kept their door closed that way. He says there is no evidence that she was held against her will in the storage unit, which is why he declined to file kidnapping charges.

“How can I prove that she didn’t agree to this? What evidence do I use to do this? Who do I have to put on the witness stand?” he asked. “We found no evidence in looking through her phone, his phone and all the material we were able to collect that led us to any of these points… we looked. We looked, we looked to see if there was a humanly possible way to articulate this.” We couldn’t meet those requirements to bring charges.

Before Gill publicly announced his findings Friday, he said he met with Harris’ family.

“Any time you lose someone, the analysis and the cold facts will be a poor substitute for the loss you feel,” he said. “I have to look at it with a cold eye on the evidence and with the science and what I can prove before I go to trial. And (the family) feels the loss the way you and I would feel. Of course they are heartbroken.” They are in pain, they are in mourning. And I wish I could give them some measure of justice if there wasn’t some measure of guilt.

Wardell remained in Utah State Prison Friday on convictions in other cases and violations of adult probation and parole.