Lonnie Nyman (45) has had a very bad year! His fall from grace as a family man with a beautiful family and a successful career as the owner of a Utah funeral home has been rapid and shows no signs of slowing down.
It was discovered that in March 2018, he had been using the app Grindr to arrange a sexual encounter with a teenage boy. During their initial meeting, the boy ‘became uncomfortable with Nyman’s behaviour and left before engaging in any sexual conduct.’
His wife became aware of sexually explicit photos on Lonnie’s iPad in April 2018. When she called him out on the images, Lonnie contacted the minor and asked him in the event he was questioned about their meeting, he should lie and say ‘all we did was visit.’ His wife has filed for both divorce and a protective order since discovering the photos.
Lonnie was arrested on October 30, 2018 on a $100,000 warrant and he was booked into the Cache County Jail. And unbelievably, things got even worse for Lonnie. He attempted to use two bad checks to get out of jail. After his arrest, he agreed to stop working for the funeral home, although his information still remains on their website.
In June 2019, Lonnie pleaded guilty to five charges related to his interactions with the teen, including one count each of dealing in materials harmful to a minor, witness tampering and obstruction of justice, third-degree felonies; and two counts of enticing a minor, a class A misdemeanor. He also pleaded guilty to one count of issuing a bad check and one count of a pattern of unlawful activity, both second-degree felonies. In exchange, four other charges related to the checks were dismissed.
Lonnie’s bio on his funeral home website seems to represent someone who had one face in public and a very different one for his private life. Lonnie is a licensed Funeral Director and Embalmer. Lonnie was born and raised in Providence, Utah. He attended schools in the valley and graduated from Mountain Crest High School. He served a LDS Mission in the Minneapolis, Minnesota Hmong speaking mission. Lonnie attended Utah State University, he later received a degree in Funeral Services from St. Petersburg College in Florida. Lonnie has worked at some of the best funeral homes here in the state. Lonnie has worked in numerous positions in the past that have helped him become the person he is today from banking to food service to finally opening a funeral home which has been a goal of his for numerous years. Lonnie loves to hunt and fish and play golf in his spare time. He enjoys watching his kids in all their sporting events from football, soccer, baseball, and basketball. Lonnie loves living in Cache Valley and calling it his home for over forty years. Lonnie’s biggest joy and proudest accomplishments in his life are his beautiful wife, Jerrilyn and their five sons and one daughter. He loves spending time with them and proud to have them as his family.
Lonnie is due to be sentenced in August 2019.
Funeral home owner admits arranging to meet teen for sex act