Uta von Schwedler made a photo album for each of her four children. She worked in a research lab in Salt Lake City and had arranged a shorter week so she could be there after school. The albums were part of the time she made for them. On September 27, 2011, when her boyfriend found her dead in the bathtub, the youngest child’s album was in the water. [1]
The medical examiner found that Uta had drowned. He couldn’t say how she’d come to drown. Four years later, a jury convicted her former husband, Johnny Brickman Wall, of murder. Before the case got to trial, another dispute over the family’s photographs would put Wall under oath about where he’d been that night. [1]
The blanket at the soccer game
On September 26, Uta met with two colleagues about a promising development in their childhood leukemia research. That evening she spread a blanket at one of her children’s soccer games and shared treats with other parents. She made plans to see her boyfriend the next evening and spoke with a friend late that night. [1]
When her boyfriend arrived the following evening, the garbage cans were still out and the newspaper lay in the driveway. The door was unlocked. On his way to the bathroom he passed the bedroom, where the blinds had been drawn. He found Uta in the tub with the cold tap still running and called police. The officers saw blood on the bed and in the bathroom, and pills on the bedroom floor. Some thought there’d been a struggle. The report that went to the medical examiner described a probable suicide overdose. [1]
The examiner leaves a question open
The examiner later testified that he would have taken more photographs and examined the body more closely if the death had come to him as a suspected homicide. Even so, what he did see bothered him. Uta had cuts on her wrist and leg, other injuries he thought might be defensive, and a high level of Xanax in her system. He asked police whether they were still investigating. He recorded the cause as drowning and left the manner undetermined. [1]
Uta kept a calendar of the medicines she took, the doses and how she felt. Investigators found no entry for Xanax and no prescription bottle for it among her belongings. Wall, a physician, had written a prescription for the drug in his own name. He said he’d filled it for his mother. His parents couldn’t confirm receiving it when investigators first asked. The calendar could tell police what fit Uta’s usual routine. It couldn’t tell them how she’d taken the drug. [1]
The morning people remembered
At about six on September 27, Wall’s eldest daughter couldn’t find him. She called twice and walked to the light-rail station to get to school. At 7:05, a schoolmate and her mother saw Wall driving away from the direction of his house. Just after eight, a car wash photographed his vehicle at drop-off. Wall asked an attendant to pay particular attention to the cargo area and a spot on the rear seat. At work, his colleagues saw a scratch and an injured eye. Wall said the dog had scratched him. [1]
When detectives asked about the previous evening, Wall kept telling them what he generally did when he picked up the children. They wanted to know what he’d done that Monday. He couldn’t account for the stretch from eight that evening to 6:45 the next morning. [1]
The albums go to Germany
Uta’s eldest son went to her house for the albums. The spare key the children usually used was missing, so Uta’s boyfriend helped him get in. He sent the pictures to her family in Germany and told his father he’d receive copies. Wall sued to get the albums back. His son responded with a wrongful death claim. [1]
By then, the son, other relatives and people close to Uta had spent months asking police to look again. The investigation picked up in November 2012. At a hearing in the civil case, the lead detective said he was investigating a homicide and that Wall was the main suspect. In a deposition, Wall offered details he hadn’t given police: Uta had opened the car’s rear door to hug their daughter, he said, and later struck him in the face after he found her coming out of his garage. He also gave a different account of his early morning. Prosecutors used the changes to test his explanations for the injuries and for material police had collected. [1]
The pillowcase and the fingernails
A reconstruction specialist looked at the photographs and at evidence from the house. The specialist read the blood on the bedding as evidence of a struggle and explained why faint shoe impressions near the bedroom and bathroom could differ from the fuller ones in the kitchen. That was an interpretation of how blood had been transferred. The impressions didn’t identify Wall’s shoes. Other pathologists gave opinions that Uta’s death was a homicide. The defense disputed the prosecution’s reconstruction. [1]
Two DNA results also needed to be kept apart. The lab identified Wall as a possible contributor to DNA on the pillowcase. From the material under Uta’s fingernails, it could neither include nor exclude him. Neither result could tell the jury how or when any material got there. On appeal, Wall challenged the evidence and his lawyer’s handling of some of the prosecution’s arguments. The Utah Court of Appeals affirmed the conviction in its amended 2020 opinion. [1]
The sentencing
Wall received a sentence of 15 years to life in July 2015 and continued to deny killing Uta. The sentence set a minimum term; it didn’t set a release date. [2]
The verdict answered the criminal charge. The work of getting the case heard had fallen in part to Uta’s eldest son. Before he pressed his claim in court, he’d gone back to his mother’s house to do something for her family: get the pictures she’d put together and send them home. [1]
Case brief
Salt Lake City, Utah · 2011
- Recorded outcome
- Johnny Brickman Wall convicted in 2015; conviction affirmed in amended 2020 appellate opinion.
Key moments
People in this case
- Uta von Schwedler
Murder victim
Photo at source · CBS News · family photographs - Johnny Wall
Convicted of murdering Uta von Schwedler
Photo at source · CBS News · photographs credited to the Wall family
Look closer · 3 visuals
Inside the evidence.
Open a visual to explore what it contributed to the case—and the limits of what it shows. These original illustrations explain the record; they are not photographs of the actual evidence.
The calendar and the medicine
Original editorial illustration — not an actual evidence photograph or exhibit.
Read the evidence notes
Uta’s medication calendar and the absence of a prescription bottle were compared with toxicology and Wall’s access.
Generic calendar, not her handwriting. This does not independently establish who administered a drug.
The morning’s separate clocks
Original editorial illustration — not an actual evidence photograph or exhibit.
Read the evidence notes
Witnesses and the car-wash photograph supplied times against which Wall’s account could be tested.
Not a GPS track or a reconstructed route. No witness depicted here saw the killing.
A limited DNA association
Original editorial illustration — not an actual evidence photograph or exhibit.
Read the evidence notes
The opinion describes qualified DNA findings; the fingernail results could neither include nor exclude Wall.
No actual profile shown. The illustration does not convert an inconclusive result into a unique identification.
★ Key evidence used in a conviction · ✓ Exclusion or reversal · ◇ Disputed evidence · ⊘ Excluded at retrial · ◆ Identity / investigative finding, not a conviction. A symbol does not mean one item proved the whole case.
Follow the locations
Put the story on the map.
Follow the dated entries, then select an event to find its regional setting. Shared-location pins open a group of events. Evidence symbols identify important findings and their limitations.
Open the map in its own window ↗Sources & further reading
- State v. Wall, amended opinion, 2020 UT App 36Family history, discovery, medical findings, reconstruction testimony, DNA limitations and affirmance.
- Johnny Wall sentenced to 15 years to lifeSentence and defendant's continued denial.
Editorial review: 2026-11-12 · 1009 words