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Woman’s death in Oakley being treated as a suicide

Aaron Osowski, The Park Record

The case of a woman who was found dead from a gunshot wound to the chest at a rented home outside of Oakley on Friday evening appears to be a suicide, according to the Summit County Sheriff’s Office.

Jane S. Persinger was 43 years old and from Salt Lake City. Neighbors found the body on the porch of a home in the Hidden Lake neighborhood in Weber Canyon, east of Oakley. Summit County Sheriff’s Capt. Justin Martinez said the case is still under investigation, but preliminary indications show the death was a suicide.

At 5:15 p.m. on Friday, Martinez said dispatch received a report of a shooting. The caller stated they had witnessed a female being shot but had seen no shooter. A SWAT team was sent out, responding as if there could have been a gunman at the scene.

The first deputies who arrived determined that there was no active shooter and located Persinger on the porch with a gunshot wound to her chest. The incident was first noticed by two female neighbors, Martinez said, one of whom called 911 while the other attended to Persinger, who had stumbled out of the house before collapsing on the porch.

Through the investigation, Martinez said, deputies were able to piece together that Persinger had been inside the home while her boyfriend and his friend were at an adjacent lot looking to purchase a cabin on behalf of Persinger’s boyfriend. The boyfriend had been renting the home where Persinger was shot.

The two heard screaming and ran back to the home, where they found the two female witnesses. Deputies later interviewed all individuals present, Martinez said.

Although witnesses heard Persinger scream around the time of the gunshot, it does not rule out a suicide, Martinez said.

"Not every single gunshot wound is an instantaneous death," Martinez said.

Authorities are awaiting an autopsy by the state medical examiner’s office, which could take a month or longer, Martinez said. In the meantime, the case is being treated as a suicide.

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