Posted on 7/29/2005, 4:17:03 AM by Excuse_My_Bellicosity
WEST HAVEN -- The Weber County Sheriff's Office needs help in finding a suspect in an attempted child abduction that occurred Tuesday night.
The suspect pulled his vehicle alongside a 12-year-old girl and her younger brother at 6 p.m. near 4200 West and 4400 South Tuesday and began conversing with them, said Lt. Merv Taylor.
The driver then opened the door, grabbed the girl and put her in the back seat, Taylor said.
The suspect then drove about 100 yards but stopped and told the girl to get out after she began to punch him repeatedly in the back of head, Taylor said.
"She's lucky to be alive," Taylor said. "She did all the right things."
The girl then ran to the nearby house of Alan Spatz and called 911 to report the incident.
Spatz said he was sitting in his front room reading the newspaper when the boy came to the door crying.
"He said, 'Someone kidnapped my sister,' then the little girl came running down the road," Spatz said. "She was shaken up really bad. I took them inside, and we called 911."
While he didn't see the suspect's truck, Spatz said he saw the dust it threw up before the boy came to his door.
Taylor said children should remember the importance of "stranger danger" teachings.
"The most important thing is to stay away from them (strangers)," he said.
The suspect is described as a white male who stands 5 feet 10 inches to 5 feet 11 inches tall and has a skinny build. He is between 25 and 35 years old, with shaggy, light brown hair and a blue spike piercing his lower lip.
He was wearing white tennis shoes and white socks pulled up over the calf.
The suspect is driving a silver Ford F-350 four-door pickup.
Residents in the neighborhood were surprised by news of the abduction, said Jess Packer, who has lived there for seven years.
"This is crazy for this area. We've never had a problem," Packer said.
He said the incident was a good wake-up call for safety. He has already talked to his children about stranger safety.
A composite sketch of the suspect is expected to be available today.
People who have information on the suspect should call the Weber County Sheriff's Office at (801) 778-6600.
Per KSL Channel 5, SLC, they caught the guy this evening.
Suspect Arrested In Connection With Attempted Abduction
Jul. 28, 2005
Sandra Yi Reporting
Capt. Klint Anderson: "We think it's the courageous actions of the little girl that saved her life."
That's also what led police to the man who tried to kidnap her. It happened Tuesday evening in West Haven. The 12-year old girl fought off her attacker. Police then launched a search for the suspect.
Police solved this case quickly, in 36 hours, thanks to a good description from the victim and help from the public.
911 Tape: Caller: "We have a little girl here at our house, and we live on a dirt road and she said someone just tried to kidnap her."
That was the 9-1-1 call made minutes after the attempted kidnapping.
911 Tape: Dispatcher: "She just came up to your house?"
Caller: "Well, no, I saw her brother run up on the porch, the car bombin down this dirt road and then I just walked out here cause he was crying too. And I went out there and she was crying out there on the road. So I brought her in the house."
Police say the siblings were riding their bikes on a dirt road and stopped to look at horses. That's when a man pulled up in his truck, asking for help finding his lost dog.
Capt. Kint Anderson, Weber County Sheriff's Office: "As they rode off, he lunged after the 12-year old girl, grabbed her, picked her up off her bike, and threw her in the back seat of the pickup truck, shut the door and drove off."
But the girl put up a fight.
Capt. Klint Anderson: "She hit him many times, scratched gouged at him. She commented to our detectives that she only stopped to wave goodbye to her brother, fearing that she'd never see him again."
But in the end, her will to survive saved her life. The suspect ordered her out of his truck at the end of the dirt road.
Capt. Klint Anderson: "What's really amazing is her memory of details. She described a silver, F450 four-door pickup truck. We recovered a silver, F450 four door silver pickup truck."
The girl's description, along with tips, led police to the suspect, 22-year old Damon Crist. They arrested him at his Centerville home. Police say he had cut his hair to change his appearance.
Police say the girl did the right thing. They say kids should keep their distance from strangers, but fight back if they have to.
Capt. Klint Anderson: "Cause it's the last thing a suspect like this would want, is a big scene to make people look at them and take notice."
Police say before the attempted kidnapping Damon Crist approached teenagers at a Clinton Wal-Mart and some elementary school kids, but no one was hurt.
He's in the Weber County Jail on attempted kidnapping charges and for parole violations.
Another POS parolee. I hope this guy meets with an "accident".
Did you hear about this? They interviewed this girl on TV and she is amazing.
This guy is screwed in prison...
"Your the dude who got beat up by the little girl!"
Priceless.
No doubt. Being a child kidnapper is enough to make every prisoner hate you. Getting beat up by a girl is the icing on the cake. I hope this guy is the recipient of many beatings, and worse, in prison.
later pingout.
Utah Code Ann. 76-5-301.1. Child kidnaping.
(1) A person commits child kidnaping when the person intentionally or knowingly, without authority of law and against the will of the victim, by any means and in any manner, seizes, confines, detains, or transports a child under the age of 14 with intent to keep or conceal the child from its parent, guardian, or other person having lawful custody or control of the child.
(2) A seizure, confinement, detention, or transportation is deemed to be against the will of the victim if the victim is younger than 14 years of age at the time of the offense, and the seizure, confinement, detention, or transportation, is without the effective consent of the victim's custodial parent, guardian, or person acting in loco parentis.
(3) Violation of Section 76-5-303 is not a violation of this section.
(4) Child kidnaping is a first degree felony punishable by imprisonment for an indeterminate term of not less than 6, 10, or 15 years and which may be for life. Imprisonment is mandatory in accordance with Section 76-3-406. Amended by Chapter 40, 1996 General Session
Needs killing
I did, I saw it on KSL on the 10 o'clock news. Wow, that girl was smart and was taught well. Kind of scary that it happened out in the middle of a rural area.
Yup, put this dog down!
CREEP!
BUmp!
These things never happen at Reagan Wal-Marts.
???
Sounds like you guy's need to thin the scum herd up that way.
What a girl!
from this morning's Deseret News:
Deseret Morning News, Friday, July 29, 2005
Man arrested in kidnapping attempt
Detectives believe girl caused such a commotion that the man let her go
By Joseph M. Dougherty
Deseret Morning News
Police arrested a 22-year-old Centerville man they believe tried to kidnap a girl in West Haven earlier this week. The girl escaped after scratching and hitting the man.
Damon Victor Crist, a fugitive from California and on probation for convictions in Utah, was arrested in Centerville after a tip led officers to his home.
Investigators from the Weber County Sheriff's Office believe Crist had made contact with other children before forcing a 12-year-old girl into his pickup Tuesday night.
The girl and her 9-year-old brother were riding bikes in West Haven when they stopped to look at some horses in the area of 4200 West and 4400 South, said Capt. Klint Anderson, spokesman for the Weber County Sheriff's Office.
Detectives suspect Crist pulled up, got out of his truck and asked the children to help him find a missing puppy. He handed the girl a slip of paper with a phone number on it and told her to call him if she found the dog, Anderson said.
As the children began to pedal away, the man lunged, grabbed the girl and placed her in the cab of the full-size pickup. While her brother ran to the nearest house for help, the girl couldn't open the door and began attacking the man as he drove.
She punched, she scratched, she screamed, she gouged, Anderson said.
Detectives believe she caused such a commotion that the man let her go.
By then, the brother had gotten a man to call 911, and the girl ran back to her brother.
As the story began to circulate in the news media, other stories came to the attention of the sheriff's office about children being approached by a man with a similar description.
One was a story of two 12-year-olds at an elementary school who had been approached. Another was that of two older teenagers in Clinton who had been threatened by a man with a similar description. There were two boys in Clearfield who had also been asked to help look for a lost puppy.
By Wednesday, the sheriff's office received a tip from someone who recognized the truck and the man's description, which led investigators to Centerville where they arrested Crist at 3 a.m.
Anderson called the pattern of seeking out children a dangerous one and credited the news media and the people who helped find Crist.
Crist has a criminal record that includes convictions of theft, theft by receiving stolen property and burglary. He is currently on probation, said Jack Ford, spokesman for the Utah Department of Corrections.
Apparently while on probation Crist was arrested in California on an undisclosed charge, according to court records. He bailed out of jail July 11 and is scheduled to have an extradition hearing today.
Care to bet that this isn't the first time the POS has done this?
Good tag!
Good God I know him. I've known Damon since I was a little kid. I havent seen him since he moved out of state some years ago but I was shocked to see this on the news. What the hell could he have been thinking?
I went to high school with this jackass! Wow...Ya just never know how screwed up people really are....
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