KEARNS, Utah, Nov. 20, 2022 (Gephardt Daily) — Three men are in custody after an alleged kidnapping attempt in Salt Lake County Saturday night, which began at a Kearns residence near 4300 West 5300 South and ended in a traffic stop near 5400 South and Bangerter Highway.
According to an affidavit provided by a Salt Lake County sheriff’s investigator, the suspects were apprehended after 911 operators received a call that a woman had just been abducted by three men who were looking to collect on an alleged drug theft involving 500 grams of heroin.
The woman, whose name Gephardt Daily is withholding to protect her identity, was rescued during the traffic stop. She told investigators she and her boyfriend were at a friend’s residence in Kearns Saturday night when three suspects arrived and said “they were hired to recover drugs that she (and her male partner) had stolen from another drug dealer.”
Court documents reveal the woman told her abductors “she did not know anything about any stolen drugs,” but they pressed for payment, saying “if they couldn’t recover the drugs then they needed to be paid what their employer would have paid them for the recovery of the drugs.”
The trio also prompted the man and woman to leave the residence with them, saying they would “smoke them” if the couple refused.
The probable cause statements indicate the woman offered the men the title to her 2020 Jeep and $380 cash. They rejected the Jeep title, but took the cash, all in $20s, she told officers. The woman said they still insisted she or her boyfriend go with them, “so to avoid further confrontation” and fearing she “didn’t have any other choice.”
As soon as the abductors and the girlfriend left the boyfriend called 911 and reported the kidnapping being carried out by men driving a white pickup truck and a white passenger car, arrest documents say.
“Patrol officers ended up catching up to the vehicles entering Bangerter Highway from 5400 South. They followed the vehicles and pulled them over. This resulted in (the) arrest of APs Jared Bowers, Daniel Roberts and Dwight Messick.”
The arrests were made by officers of the Unified Police Department.
Charging documents say Bowers was found with $380 in $20s in his pocket.
Officers say a cooperative witness told officers he/she was present when Bowers received a call from an unidentified person accusing the couple of robbing a drug dealer of heroin.
“The (cooperative witness) said the APs developed a plan to tell the victims they had a tracker on their car and were sent by the people they stole from to recover the drugs.”
The female victim described Messick “as being very aggressive during the entire incident, but said the other 2 APs were calm. (She) did add that the APs threatened to ‘smoke them’ if they didn’t go with them.”
Messick, 37, Bowers, 43, and Roberts, 36, were each charged on suspicion of:
- Aggravated robbery, use or threaten use of a weapon, a first-degree felony
- Aggravated kidnapping, a first-degree felony
All three men are being held without bail.
