FARMINGTON — Police in Farmington are searching for a man who allegedly sexually assaulted a 13-year-old girl at a family reunion Sunday night.
About 10:30 p.m. a 19-year-old man who was attending the event as a friend of a family member left a building at the Davis County Fairpark in west Farmington with a 13-year-old girl under the pretense he needed to speak with her, Farmington Police Lt. Shane Whitaker said.
The man took the girl about 25 feet away from the building, where the family event was being held, to the bleachers of the horse race track and sexually assaulted her, Whitaker said.
Family members got nervous that they had not seen the girl and began looking for her, Whitaker said.
They found the man on the stairs of the bleachers, on top of the girl. He was holding her mouth shut, Whitaker said.
"At that point they approached him, and he ran off," Whitaker said.
The man ran west into a large field, and police set up a perimeter in that area.
A helicopter from the Utah Department of Public Safety, equipped with night vision devices, scanned the area from overhead, but the man was not found after about two hours of searching, Whitaker said.
The man's identity was not released to the public Monday night.
But Whitaker said the police department knows who he is and is confident he will soon be apprehended.
The girl was taken to Primary Children's Medical Center for an exam and treatment. She has been released to her parents, Whitaker said.
E-mail: lhancock@desnews.com