Police say a report of a stolen purse led them to find a 5-year-old girl whose abduction prompted an Amber Alert on Friday.
In a bizarre set of circumstances, the girl's mother and her boyfriend were apprehended near the Sourdough campground off state Route 39 near the Cache and Weber county border, while around the same time the girl was discovered in Evanston, Wyo., with a friend of the suspects.
Just after noon Saturday, fish and game officials spotted Julia Wheelwright and Donald Lee Waters after they had wrecked their stolen car and were walking away from it. Officials noticed that the vehicle matched the description sent out statewide Friday in an Amber Alert.
Morgan County Sheriff's Sgt. Jason Lee said deputies were called and a brief foot chase ensued. Deputies caught up with the two, and after a brief scuffle, they were taken into custody. Deputies said they did not know why the two were in the area.
Earlier, an employee at a motel in Evanston had called police, complaining that her purse had been stolen by a man matching Waters' description. She also indicated that Waters was friends with the motel's night clerk, Lee said.
Lee said police in Evanston tracked down the clerk at her home and discovered 5-year-old Jasmine Monique Spens was there. "The clerk didn't know about the Amber Alert or that people were looking for her," Lee said.
Deputies reported the girl was found unharmed and had been taken to an area hospital for an examination. Lee said the girl was reunited with her grandmother, who has full custody of her, late Saturday afternoon.
Authorities say the events began when Wheelwright and Waters beat up Spens' grandmother and took the girl just after 11 a.m. on Friday in Morgan County.
Lee said both Wheelwright and Waters have criminal histories involving drugs and violence. Both were booked into the Weber County Jail on suspicion of child kidnapping and assault.
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