Articles labeled: Utah

Three children in Eagle Mountain, Utah have been taken into custody because police say they were abused and malnourished.

It could be the worst case of child abuse in Utah County. Utah County sheriff’s deputies responded to a call Tuesday of a nude child in front of a home in Eagle Mountain at 1394 East Raptor Road. Investigators believe the nine-year old girl had jumped out of a window at least 12 feet high.

Deputies say they found the girl’s six year-year old brother inside the house, both were malnourished. Deputies say the boy was found inside the home in a fetal position and unresponsive. Investigators say both children had been locked inside bathrooms in the home.

Two people have been charged with child abuse and neglect. They are 33-year-old Mary Heath and 37-year old Sekoa Aiona.

Well if you want to be as good as Tony Hawk, you have to start young.

A 38-year-old man allegedly damaged a police car after he was arrested over the weekend for dropping his 2-year-old boy into a half pipe at a Salt Lake City skate park.

Salt Lake City police arrested the man after witnesses reported the incident at the Fairmont Park skate area.

The man had a strong odor of alcohol and would not listen to police commands, according to an affidavit filed with the Salt Lake County Jail.

An 11-year-old boy and his friends were playing a “mummy game”, where they wrapped him up in toilet paper to look like, naturally, a mummy. Of course this is a common event at sleep overs and pep rallies the world over, but in this case the boys somehow managed to set their friend on fire.

“The boys were all playing together, and they were all about the same age ranging from 8 to 11,” Police Capt. Ned Jackson said. “At this point, we think it’s just accidental — no hazing. That’s what people immediately think when you think of someone being wrapped up to a pole and burnt, but it appears that was not the case.”

[Tyler] Morgan and four to six other boys were playing in a park when the boys decided to turn him into a mummy. He was willing to go along, Jackson said.

After wrapping Morgan up against a pole, the boys strung more toilet paper to form a sort of wrestling ring. One of the boys lit that toilet paper, and when he and his playmates tried to douse the fire sparks lit the toilet paper wrapped around Morgan.

A Utah girl accidentally had her toes cut off when she fell of the back of a riding lawnmower and it ran over her feet.

She’s now in the hospital, and paramedics say she’s lucky to be alive.

Clinton’s assistant fire chief, Guido Smith, tells the Ogden Standard-Examiner the little girl was riding with her father on the back of a four wheeler with a lawn mower attachment. She fell off the back, and the mower ran over her.

Paramedics say when they got to her last night, many of her toes had been amputated. She was taken by Life-Flight to the hospital. “In all reality she is extremely fortunate to still be alive,” Smith said.

A Provo, Utah man has been arrested after he allegedly took his 18-month-old toddler and drop kicked her.

A witness reported seeing the 23-year-old man kick the child from the doorway of their motel room back into the room, where the child began screaming, according to a police affidavit filed in 4th District Court.

Police who responded to the scene observed a blue and purple bruise covering the side of the child’s face, but found no marks on her stomach, according to the affidavit.

The suspect initially said he had accidentally walked into his daughter and knocked her over, but later changed his story, saying he was so upset during the argument with his wife that he “blacked out” and could not remember what happened, the affidavit states. He said it was possible that he kicked the child during this time.

A quick acting mom in South Salt Lake rescued her daughter and nephew from the home of her neighbor, who has been accused of kidnapping the children.

Earlier that day, neighbor David Bell had been at her house for the family’s Fourth of July party. “He kind of just came over and just kind of wanted to hang out. We didn’t have a problem with that. He seemed pretty nice,” the mother said.

Court documents say in the early morning hours, as the children slept, Bell took the woman’s 2-year-old daughter and 4-year-old nephew. The woman says her 4-year-old daughter saw it happen and, thinking it was a bad dream, began to cry. That alerted her mother.

“I noticed my 2-year-old missing, so I searched the whole house. I guess by instinct, I just went directly over to the neighbor’s house and found the children and him and his partner in the bedroom,” the mother said.

A 7-year-old Salt Lake City girl was murdered on Sunday in a drive-by shooting and police have arrested 4 suspects.

Frank Benavidez, 20, was arrested and booked into the Salt Lake County jail and suspicion of first-degree homicide. The juveniles — Gabriel Magallon, 17; Mae Johnson, 16; and Tiona Vigial, 16 — also are in custody, suspected of first-degree homicide.

The Salt Lake City Police Department identified the victim as Maria Del Carmen Menchaca. Family friend Elva Reynaga said the girl was a second-grader at Riley Elementary.

Investigators also have recovered a gun linked to the shooting, according to Salt Lake City police spokeswoman Jordan Smith. The Salt Lake County District Attorney’s Office is scheduled to screen the case Wednesday.

Two girls were riding an ATV when it plunged over a cliff. One girl died, and the other was seriously injured.

Two girls were on a four-wheeler when it fell off a 30-foot cliff into Pleasant Creek in Sanpete County Saturday. Both of the girls became trapped underneath the vehicle when it fell into the water. One of the girls was able to free herself, and was later taken to the Sanpate Valley Hospital in serious condition. The other girl, 17, was washed down the stream and did not survive the accident, according to Sanpete County Sheriff’s deputies. Her body reportedly was found Sunday.

Two Salt Lake City girls reached their final straw when their mom shut of Nickelodeon to save money because of rising fuel prices. So they decided to take their case to the streets.

Cable TV was one of the family’s budget-cutting casualties, leaving Sadie, 9, and her 7-year-old sister without their favorite cartoons and shows.

“Gas prices are too high,” Sadie said. “I just decided to come and protest so they’d go down.”

The girls marched through downtown Monday chanting and carrying signs made from old campaign signs.

An infant left in a car for 2 hours on a 90 degree day has somehow survived, although he is in critical condition. The mother says she “forgot” the child was in the car. We can see accidentally leaving your dog out in the yard, but forgetting your baby out in the hot sun? How scatterbrained do you have to be?

Given the length of time the boy spent in the vehicle and the scorching temperatures inside the car, it’s remarkable the 5-month-old boy didn’t die in Tuesday’s incident, said Jan Null, a meteorologist and adjunct professor at San Francisco State University who studies the trend of hyperthermia deaths of children in vehicles.

“That amount of time on a 90-degree day, temperatures after the first hour are going to be at 130 degrees in the car,” Null said.

“I’m surprised the child did not die. Maybe the child was well-hydrated. There’s a lot of variables that we don’t know.”

The vehicle was parked in a driveway in direct sunlight. Null said body cells and organs start dying at about 107 degrees. In researching cases where children are left in hot cars, he has noticed that many suffer brain damage if they survive the incident.

We’re going to be even more thankful for our pleasant, non-psycho neighbors — because while they may mow the lawn a bit too early on a Sunday morning, we don’t think they would ever kill our children. How chilling that this was probably someone they saw every day.

The neighbor of a girl found dead Tuesday night in a bathtub inside his apartment admitted to authorities that he killed her before trying to hide her body, according to Utah police.

Esar Met, 21, lived in a row-house style unit at the same complex where 7-year-old Hser Nay Moo disappeared from Monday afternoon. Met was arrested this morning after he admitted to attempting to hold the child “by force” and she died, according to a Salt Lake County statement. Met also told authorities he tried to conceal the body and other evidence from the crime scene, according to the statement.

We’ll admit we’re bystanders when it comes to our children’s activities. For example, on a trip to Chuck E. Cheese you’re more likely to find us in a booth with a book than running around with our kids playing the games and climbing in the tubes. If you’re one of those parents, hey, more power to ya, but a story like this makes us think we’ve made a good decision:

A southern Utah woman is recovering after being scalped while riding on a go-cart.

Dawn Tiatia was riding go-carts at her daughter’s birthday party at a park in Saint George, Utah, a few weeks ago. A big chunk of her hair got caught in the machine’s drive shaft and was ripped off her head.

After spending several days in the hospital, she made a full recovery. The park says there are signs warning about long hair getting caught in the machines.

This is not an isolated incident. Two years ago the Consumer Product Safety Commission issued a warning for riders to immediately stop using these types of go-carts until they can be retro-fitted because of this problem.

Young parents whose first infant died while co-sleeping in their bed decided to test fate once again, and bring their second infant child into bed with them. The second time around didn’t prove to be any safer as the first however, as the tiny infant died of suffocation blamed on co-sleeping.

Citing the parents should have known better, they are now being charged with child abuse homicide.

WEST JORDAN - The case of two parents charged with a homicide for “co-sleeping” with their 3 1/2 -month-old baby boy will proceed to trial, a 3rd District Court judge ruled this week.

Trevor Collet Merrill and Echo J. Nielsen, both 24, are charged with third-degree felony child-abuse homicide and class B misdemeanor reckless endangerment for the Aug. 19, 2006 death of Kayson Bradley Merrill. The couple went to bed with the baby and awoke to find he was dead.

During a Jan. 1 preliminary hearing, Utah medical examiner Edward Leis testified that although he listed the baby’s cause of death as “undetermined,” the child most likely died because he was rolled onto his stomach during the night, and the face-down position obstructed his ability to breathe.

Leis testified he took into account that in 2003, the couple’s first-born child also died while co-sleeping with the parents.

The only thing really noteworthy about this story is that it took an act of legislation to put this in place — really, shouldn’t the various school boards already be taking this sort of action?

The [Utah] House Education Committee on Tuesday unanimously passed HB286, which would permanently revoke the license of any teacher who molests a student or any other child. Rep. Carl Wimmer, R-Herriman, said he sought the bill after Frank Laine Hall, a Riverton teacher, was convicted of molesting his students.

He said the odds of Hall returning to teaching already are miniscule. The Utah State Board of Education revoked Hall’s license for 25 years.

But Wimmer wants to make sure there is no chance of that happening.

What appears to be an abduction of sorts, a 5 year old went missing and was seen hitchhiking. The little girl reportedly was given two rides while she was missing.

Something tells me that more will come out about this story and it won’t be good.

Police are still shaking their heads about an enterprising Orem 5-year-old who gave them and her parents a major scare Tuesday.

Lt. Keldon Brown said dispatch started receiving calls around 8 a.m. about a little girl hitchhiking on the side of the street in the area of 800 North and 1150 West.

At the same time, they received calls from a frantic mother who couldn’t find her daughter. She was going to take the little girl half a block away to catch the school bus to Aspen Elementary School, but couldn’t find her. When she checked the bus stop, the girl wasn’t there.

Then about 9 a.m., a call came in from officials at Grandview Elementary School in Provo - 8 miles away - saying someone had dropped the girl off there.