Samantha VanTreese says she continues to struggle with the loss of her younger brother, Ivan “Nick” Vetecnik, who was brutally murdered in 2021. While she views the guilty plea of his killer, Rowdy Lee Aguilar, as a step toward justice, she remains outraged by the court’s recognition of his mental condition.
“He knew what he was doing,” VanTreese said. “He deserves to rot.” According to Salt Lake County District Attorney Sam Gill’s office, Aguilar, who was 17 at the time, admitted to stabbing 15-year-old Ivan 26 times before dismembering his body.
VanTreese described the murder as cruel and intimate. “He did this with a kitchen knife,” she said. “That is personal. My brother was a big boy.” She believes Aguilar’s efforts to conceal the crime — including cleaning up the scene and lying to authorities — demonstrate full awareness of his actions.
“You tried to clean up the mess, you ran, you lied,” she said. “You tried to say you were cutting up ribs for a BBQ.” VanTreese’s biggest fear now is that Aguilar could eventually be released. With the possibility of parole in 25 years, she worries his freedom would put others at risk.
“He’s a threat to the people around him where he’s at right now,” she said. Her anger is compounded by what she views as Aguilar’s lack of remorse. “Every court hearing we see him at, he just has a smug look on his face,” she said. “Like he actually doesn’t care what he did.”
The Vetecnik family continues to feel the absence of Ivan, whom they called Nick, in everyday life. “We don’t get to see our Nick anymore,” VanTreese said. “He doesn’t get to hit the milestones with us, or even have milestones of his own.”
One chilling detail still lingers for her. She said she heard from a reliable source that Aguilar once expressed a disturbing curiosity: “He wanted to know what it was like to kill someone.” Despite the pain, VanTreese is determined to hold on to hope. “Regardless of how bad life is, you can always find the beautiful,” she said.
She is preparing to speak directly to Aguilar during his special sentencing hearing, scheduled for December 5, where she plans to confront him face-to-face about the devastation he caused her family. Vetecnik’s sister, Samantha VanTreese, wrote in a Facebook post that the guilty plea felt like a win.