SARATOGA SPRINGS — A Saratoga Springs man who police say was living with a teenage girl he was engaging in illegal sexual activity with was arrested after an alert apartment manager notified police.
Alex Zuniga-Ramirez, 43, was booked into the Utah County Jail on Thursday for investigation of 10 counts of sexual exploitation of a minor, 15 counts of unlawful sexual activity with a minor, and unlawful sexual conduct with a 16-year-old.
On Jan. 7, Lehi police were contacted by a manager of an apartment complex in Lehi who said Zuniga and a young girl had tried to rent a one-bedroom apartment and she was concerned, according to a police affidavit.
The couple first told the manager that the girl was 18, from Australia, and that they were dating but she lost her passport, the affidavit states.
“However, when the office manager pressed them for (the girl’s) identification, (she) eventually admitted she was a minor and claimed Alex Zuniga-Ramirez was her stepfather. This concerned the office manager even more because the two were trying to rent a one-bedroom apartment together and that seemed odd for a stepdaughter to live and sleep in the same room as her 43-year-old stepfather,” according to the affidavit.
The manager told the girl she would need permission from her biological parents before she would rent to them. Zuniga and the girl declined and left and the manager called police.
Using information from the paperwork the two had already filled out, police said they found Zuniga and the girl were living together in Saratoga Springs. The girl had told the landlord there that she was 19, even though she was only 16, the affidavit says.
On Wednesday, police contacted the girl’s biological mother who lives in Nevada. She said her daughter left to live with her father in Utah, but then met her boyfriend Zuniga.
The girl told her mother that Zuniga was 18, though the mother told police she suspected he was possibly in his early 20s, according to police.
“When detectives informed her Alex was actually 43 years old, (the) mother became extremely disgusted. She stated she would have never approved of (her daughter) dating someone who is that old and (the) mother later stated Alex was older than her,” the affidavit states.
When questioned by police, Zuniga stated that he and the girl had been sexually active since last summer, according to the affidavit. Police say explicit pictures and videos of the girl were also found on Zuniga’s phone.