Roy home the scene of alleged child abuse, homicide

File photo: Gephardt Daily/Nancy Van Valkenburg

ROY, Utah, Dec. 21, 2023 (Gephardt Daily) — Called to the scene of a medical emergency, police Thursday ended up arresting the caller on suspicion of murder and multiple abuse charges.

In all, nine children were in the residence in the general area of 4450 South and 1950 West when police were dispatched at 9:56 a.m., Roy City Police Public Information Officer Stuart Hackworth said.

Twin 2-year-olds were immediately sent to a hospital with blunt force trauma injuries, where the male twin succumbed to his injuries, Hackworth said. The toddler’s sister survived.

Police originally said the twins were relatives of Jonathan Dunn, 36, who was arrested and booked into the Weber County Jail. In an updated press release, Roy police said Dunn was actually a friend of the victim’s family.

“We initially reported Jonathan Dunn was an uncle to the victims,” the Roy PD update said. “This is incorrect. He is a friend to the victims parents who was referred to as an uncle.”

Dunn now faces charges of two counts of aggravated sexual abuse of a child, two counts of aggravated child abuse and one count of aggravated murder, all first-degree felonies.

Dunn had called 911 to report cardiac arrest in the 2-year-old male victim, Hackworth told Gephardt Daily, and was performing CPR on the child when officers rolled up.

At the time, Dunn was babysitting the twins, who did not reside at his address, Hackworth said. The other seven children were aged mid-teens to 7 years old, some residing there or visiting, he said, and all are being evaluated by detectives and staff from the state Division of Child and Family Services, as to injuries or abuse.

Roy police were joined at the scene by members of the Weber-Morgan Homicide Task Force, a multi-jurisdiction team of investigators who assist local agencies in death probes. Detectives determined there were “indications of sexual abuse” of the twin toddlers, Hackworth said.

He said he couldn’t comment on the specifics or if any statements from children at the scene were involved. The released address of the crime scene is not exact, he said, but approximate because of the ongoing nature of the investigation.

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