Authorities have apprehended a suspect after three women were found dead at two separate locations in Utah on Wednesday.

The suspect has been identified as Ivan Miller, 22, of Blakesburg, Iowa. He was taken into custody early on Thursday morning after law enforcement “tracked him in one of the victims’ vehicles”, the Utah public safety department said in a statement.

“The vehicle was tracked through southern Utah into northern Arizona and eventually into Colorado,” authorities said, noting that Colorado law enforcement located the vehicle abandoned in Pagosa Springs, Colorado. After a brief search, Miller was taken into custody “without incident”.

Miller is currently being held on suspicion of carrying a concealed weapon, and was scheduled to make his first court appearance in Colorado on Friday afternoon.

Authorities believe Miller killed a woman in southern Utah on Wednesday afternoon and then drove her vehicle to a trailhead near Capitol Reef national park, where he killed two women hiking together. He fled in one of their vehicles.

It does not appear Miller had any connection to the victims, said Lt Cameron Roden, a spokesperson for the Utah highway patrol.

The Utah public safety department said the investigation is continuing while “members of the Utah state bureau of investigation and the Utah crime lab process two crime scenes in the Lyman and Torrey area”.

“There are no ongoing threats to the public, and investigators have no outstanding suspects,” authorities added.

In a news release earlier on Thursday, the Utah public safety department said that authorities received a call on Wednesday afternoon reporting that two women had been found dead on a hiking trail. During the course of the investigation, a third woman was found dead at a residence in Wayne county.

Officials said the first woman was in her 30s, the second in her 60s and the third in her 80s. The news release states that the victims’ identifies are being withheld while next of kin notifications are underway.

The husbands of the two women found dead on a hiking trail contacted police late on Wednesday after they found their wives’ bodies, Roden said. Investigators discovered the first victim after identifying the owner of a vehicle left in a lot near the trail.

The Utah public safety department said that it is investigating the case alongside local law enforcement agencies, and had said that “multiple scenes are being investigated and processed in Torrey and the surrounding areas”.

The Wayne county sheriff’s office urged local residents in a statement on social media on Wednesday evening to “take extra precautions, keep lights on, keep doors locked, remain home or with others this evening if possible”.

“Multiple law enforcement agencies are currently in the area,” the office said.

The Wayne county school district also announced on Wednesday night that “out of an abundance of caution and concern for student and public safety” its schools would be closed on Thursday and Friday “due to unfolding events in the county”.

“We will also have counselors in place to support students when we are back in session next week,” the school district said. “We will communicate updates as things unfold.”