Weare, NH: Utah woman dead of apparent murder-suicide in NH

By Brian Skoloff
Associated Press / July 11, 2011
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SALT LAKE CITY—A woman found dead in an apparent murder-suicide in New Hampshire was once at the center of a naked hot-tubbing scandal that led to the resignation of Utah's House majority leader last year.

Cheryl Maher was found Sunday in a Weare, N.H., home she shared with her boyfriend, her father, Richard Maher, told The Associated Press on Monday.

New Hampshire authorities say police found the bodies of a man and woman after responding to a 911 call early Sunday morning. They say it appeared the man killed the woman.

Authorities have not released details of the crime or names of the victims, but Richard Maher confirmed his daughter was killed.

"We don't know what to do because she's back there and the body is with the state," Maher said in a telephone interview from his home in Gilbert, Ariz. "We're just here waiting."

A telephone message for New Hampshire Senior Assistant Attorney General Susan Morrell wasn't immediately returned Monday afternoon.

Last year, then-Republican Rep. Kevin Garn resigned as Utah's House majority leader after admitting he paid Maher $150,000 to keep quiet about the hot-tubbing incident that took place in the mid-1980s when she was just 15.

Garn, now 56, acknowledged the indiscretion immediately after the Legislature adjourned for the session in March 2010.

"Although we did not have any sexual contact, it was still clearly inappropriate -- and it was my fault," he said from the House floor at the time.

Garn told colleagues he paid Maher $150,000 after she began contacting reporters about the incident during his unsuccessful bid for a congressional seat in 2002.

"I'm sure the resignation was really difficult for him, but it needed to happen," Maher said after Garn's announcement. "This is a secret that devastated my life and my family's life."