OGDEN, Utah, Oct. 14, 2016 (Gephardt Daily) — A 5-year-old girl, alone and scared, was found by security personnel at Ogden Weber Applied Technology College on Sunday morning.
Ogden Police Lt. Tim Scott said OWATC security reported a “found child in their parking lot overnight.”
Scott said the child was dropped off there in the early morning hours in her pajamas, but said the girl, although not injured, was “scared, cold, had no shoes and was wrapped in a blanket.” She was found several hours later, at approximately 7:30 a.m., by security personnel.
Scott said the temperature dropped to 39 degrees that night.
He said the child’s father is a suspect, and the case is being investigated by Ogden detectives.
Scott said the father does not have a connection with the college, other than that he was staying with his parents a few blocks away and his daughter was with him for the weekend. There does not appear to be a motive for why the father left his daughter there, though Scott said there have been some reports that the man has been using drugs.
“We don’t know really what purpose he’d take the child, if there was a drug-induced event, or some kind of psychosis,” said Scott.
Ogden Police said the Department of Child and Family Services is involved in the investigation, and that the man could be charged with third-degree felony child abandonment.
Scott said the girl is currently with her mother, and the next step is to conduct a forensic interview with the little girl to see if this was an isolated event, or if there have been other abuse or abandonment events.
Gephardt Daily will have more on this developing story as information becomes available.
