SALT LAKE CITY — Facing her brother’s killer for the first time was something Samantha VanTreese said she could never fully prepare for, but when the moment came, she locked eyes with Rowdy Lee Aguilar — and read a victim impact statement she hoped would stay with him for the rest of his life.
“I was locked in on him,” she said, describing the seconds before she began speaking.
VanTreese is the older sister of 15‑year‑old Ivan “Nik” Vetecnik of Taylorsville, who was murdered in 2021. According to court documents, Aguilar stabbed the teenager 26 times in the head before dismembering his body. The crime came just two years after the siblings had lost both of their parents — a trauma Samantha said Nik was still processing…