PARLEYS CANYON, Utah, July 5, 2016 (Gephardt Daily) — A weekend dispatch call that sent firefighters up Parleys Canyon in search of a phantom fire may have saved a woman from murder by hanging.
Four Unified Fire Authority firefighters could not find the reported smoke on Friday, so picked a random exit off Interstate 80 to turn their vehicle around.
They exited at milepost 131, and noticed a car “awkwardly positioned,” and blocking the road, according to Utah Highway Patrol Sgt. Randy Riches.
The firefighters reported that they noticed a man and woman nearby, and saw the man was pulling on a rope around the woman’s neck, as if to hang her. The other end of the rope was strung up and over a metal pipe, and the woman was crying and pulling at the rope as it constricted her neck.
The man reportedly saw the firefighters, and forced the woman into his car. The firefighters rushed the vehicle and restrained the man until Utah Highway Patrol troopers arrived and made an arrest.
Juan Echeveste Alba, 22, of Salt Lake City, was arrested on suspicion of attempted murder and aggravated kidnapping.
The woman told officer that Echeveste-Alba has tried to hurt her in the past, and once tried to strangle her, cutting off her air supply to the point that she said she saw white dots.
