Estimated read time: 1-2 minutes
This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.
CEDAR CITY — A girl falsely reporting her own kidnapping to her mother led to the arrest of a teen and an adult on Tuesday, the Iron County Sheriff’s Office said.
Iron County Sheriff’s deputies and Utah Highway Patrol troopers joined efforts to locate a vehicle after a teenage girl contacted her mother in Denver saying she had been kidnapped the night before, the sheriff’s office said.
The agencies located and stopped a 2008 Ford Fusion they believed was involved, according to the sheriff’s office.
Officers located the girl in the car, along with two other juvenile females, a juvenile male, and an adult male, Nathan Rodriguez, 21, who were traveling from Denver to Las Vegas. Officers determined that no kidnapping had taken place, the sheriff’s office said.
Investigators did locate small amounts of marijuana, drug paraphernalia, alcohol and stolen property in the vehicle, according to the sheriff’s office.
Rodriguez was booked into Iron County Jail for investigation of furnishing alcohol to a minor, possession of stolen property, possession of marijuana and possession of paraphernalia. The male juvenile boy booked into the Iron County Juvenile Detention Center for investigation of not a drop DUI, possession of marijuana, possession of drug paraphernalia and possession of stolen property, according to the sheriff’s office.
The girls were not booked, but were taken to the Iron County Youth Center to be picked up by parents or guardians.