Crime

Beloved Utah Doctor Killed by Boyfriend in Murder-Suicide: She 'Connect[ed] with Her Patients'

The lifeless bodies of Sarah Hawley, 27, and Travis Geddes, 30, were found in the couple's Sugar House home on Sunday

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Published on January 29, 2019 11:52 AM

Police in Salt Lake City have confirmed that a University of Utah medical resident dedicated to helping underserved people was murdered Sunday by her longtime boyfriend, who then killed himself.

The lifeless bodies of Sarah Hawley, 27, and Travis Geddes, 30, were found in the couple’s Sugar House home. Both died from fatal gunshots.

Officers were dispatched to the home at about 8 p.m., when a neighbor called 911 to report a possible domestic incident.

Police say Geddes first shot Hawley and then turned the gun on himself.

Authorities have described the incident as a “domestic-related murder-suicide.”

Hawley’s Facebook page indicates she had been in a relationship with Geddes since 2014.

According to her biography on the University of Utah’s School of Medicine website, Hawley was a doctor in the family medicine residency program at the University of Utah’s School of Medicine.

She earned her medical degree from the University of California-San Francisco School of Medicine.

Her bio notes that Hawley “fell in love” with the school “when she realized that the program combined excellent training opportunities in maternal and child healthcare with a set of faculty and residents who are as excited about learning and living in the beautiful mountains of Salt Lake City as she is.”

In a statement to the Salt Lake Tribune, Kolawole Okuyemi, Hawley’s department chairman, said the young doctor made the move to Utah “to continue her passion of providing care to women and children in underserved communities.”

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Okuyemi said that Hawley’s “adventurous spirit and love of learning will be missed by all those who knew her.”

Michael Good, Dean of the School of Medicine, told the paper that “Dr. Hawley always did a great job of connecting with her patients and understanding where they were coming from. She treated the whole person, and patients were always appreciative of her approach.”

If you suspect domestic violence, call the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1-800-799-7233, or go tothehotline.org. All calls are toll-free and confidential. The hotline is available 24/7 in more than 170 languages.