A 41-year-old man has been booked for investigation of kidnapping and sexually abusing an 11-year-old girl whose family he had befriended.
The man was helping the family move on Wednesday when he asked the girl's parents if he could take their three children to the store, Ogden police detective David Lucas said Thursday.The two other children, aged 10 and 12, were dropped off at a grocery store and the man left with the girl, Lucas said.
"He sent two of the kids in, then he realized he had the time and the opportunity," the detective said, adding that the man was "kind of infatuated" with the child.
Lucas said the man kept the girl with him until about 6 a.m. Thursday, when he allowed her to call her mother to tell her she was coming home. The mother called the police, who apprehended the man, still with the girl, at his apartment.
The child was taken to a hospital for examination and then reunited with her family.
Lucas said the man, who had moved to the Ogden area two years ago from Pennsylvania, had known the family for about six months, staying part of the time in their back yard in a camper.
The girl's mother said the man had taken the children on outings before without incident.
However, a March 19 police report indicated the man called police, saying he might harm himself or the children.
Police took him to the psychiatric ward at McKay Dee Hospital, where he voluntarily admitted himself. He was released later.
Lucas said he spent Thursday driving around with the man as he retraced his movements while he had the child with him.
Lucas said the man told him he left Ogden at about 5 p.m., drove north to Corinne, backtracked through Brigham City and then drove up Sardine Canyon.
The man, who had no prior criminal record, was booked into Weber County Jail for investigation of aggravated kidnapping, rape of a child, forcible sexual abuse and two counts of sodomy of a child, all first-degree felonies.