Details revealed in death of SLC teen Baleigh Bagshaw; charges filed against Shaun French

Shaun Patrick French. Photo: Salt Lake County

SALT LAKE CITY, Utah, May 25, 2018 (Gephardt Daily) — Formal charges have been filed against Shaun French, confessed killer of 15-year-old West High student Baleigh Bagshaw.

French, 24, has been charged with:

  • Aggravated murder, a first-degree felony
  • Aggravated burglary, a first-degree felony
  • Obstructing justice, a second-degree felony
  • Sexual exploitation of a minor, a second-degree felony

Court paperwork also reveals more about what happened on May 7, when Bagshaw was murdered in a brutal attack.

According to the charging documents police were sent to Bagshaw’s residence at 3:08 p.m. May 7 on a suspicious circumstances call.

“Ms. S. Bagshaw reported that she was on the phone with her 15-year-old daughter, B.B. (Baleigh Bagshaw) at 2:57 p.m. when B.B. started screaming.”

A neighbor who went to investigate saw blood inside and called police. Officers found the body of Baleigh Bagshaw on the kitchen floor.

Bagshaw’s mother told police that the evening before, her daughter had admitted to a previous sexual relationship with Shaun Patrick French, starting when she was 14.

“Ms. Bagshaw stated B.B. told her French had threatened to send Ms. Bagshaw nude photographs of B.B. and to post the photographs on social media,” the indictment says.

“Ms. Bagshaw stated that B.B.’s cell phone kept ringing during their conversation, and B.B. stated it was French, and that he had called her 13 times that day.”

The mother then received the explicit photos of B.B. via a social media account, and asked her daughter about them. The younger Bagshaw told her mother she believed the photos were from French, the indictment says.

The two discussed the possibility of reporting French to police and trying to get a restraining order against him, it says.

French previously had lived in the house, staying there from January 2017 until July of that year, when the elder Bagshaw kicked him out, she told police. He was aware he was not welcome in the house, Bagshaw said.

Officers contacted some of French’s friends and family members, and found one who admitted to creating a social media account that was used for French to send Bagshaw photos of her daughter. Another person interviewed said “French was obsessed with Bagshaw and that he wanted to marry her.”

One of French’s relatives said Shaun French called him on May 3, saying he was depressed and wanted to cut his own throat.

The relative said that “French told him he was going to be charged with rape for sleeping with a minor,” the indictment says.

On May 9, the relative contacted police “and reported that French had just called him and admitted he cut a girl’s throat,” adding that he was calling from Colorado.

French was arrested later that day by Otero County Police, in an area east of Pueblo, Colo.

A male friend of French was traveling with him, and told officers that he and French had spent part of May 6 and 7 in a Salt Lake City park, and that French had left “on foot to contact his ex-girlfriend.”

The friend said that when French returned, he was carrying a black backpack, and “he had blood all over his face and hands.”

The friend told police French “told him they had to leave, that he had cut the girl’s throat,” stating that the victim was on the phone when he killed her.

French and his friend then traveled to Evanston, Wyo., stopping at a gas station where “French placed his bloody clothing into his backpack and then threw the backpack in a dumpster. French then went into the store and washed the blood off his face and hands.”

Police located the landfill where the gas station trash ended up, and searched for hours until finding the backpack with clothing that appeared to be bloodstained, along with duct tape, a ski mask, Latex gloves and a knife.

An autopsy on Bagshaw revealed her cause of death to be sharp force injury and her manner of death to be homicide. She had deep cuts and/or stabs to the front and back of her neck, along with a stab wound to her left shoulder and lacerations to her fingers.

French is being held without bail in the Salt Lake County jail facility.

Baleigh Bagshaw Photo Facebook

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here