Utah Historian Killed by Explosion in His Home
An explosion ripped through the home of one of the foremost collectors of early western and Mormon writings on Sunday, killing him and leveling his house.
A.J. Simmonds, 52, a renowned historian at Utah State University, was apparently alone.
The explosion appeared to have been caused by natural gas and authorities were investigating whether Simmonds had committed suicide, Cache County Sheriff Sid Groll said late Sunday.
Simmonds had been depressed and had recently separated from his wife, Jeannie, Groll said.
The blast shook the neighborhood in Trenton, and firefighters had to put out several small blazes.
A decade ago, Simmonds was one of the first historians to question the authenticity of early Mormon documents peddled by collector Mark Hofmann.
The documents were later found to be part of a forgery scheme. Hofmann tried to cover up the scheme in 1985 by using pipe bombs to destroy documents and ended up killing two people instead. He is serving a life term.
Groll said there was no indication that the blast was the work of the Unabomber. Nine of his bombs have been aimed at universities and two were sent to Utah.
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