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WASHINGTON, Washington County — When Gina Hansen's young daughter came downstairs on a recent morning, she made a disturbing comment to her mother.
"My oldest daughter comes down and says something that really kind of puzzled me and made me confused, so I asked her what happened," Hansen said. "She said, 'I did a back bend for the Internet guy.' And I said, 'What? Why?' And she just goes, 'I don't know.' And I just went upstairs with her because I was (thinking), 'Something's wrong.'"
After the man installing their Internet left the house, Hansen immediately called her husband and Washington City police, who arrived at her house within minutes.
That incident occurred in April. On Wednesday, the St. George man who was installing Internet in Hansen's house that day was booked into the Washington County Jail for investigation of eight counts of sexual exploitation of a minor.
Kenneth David Paiz Arana, 22, was installing Internet at Hansen's home when he "allegedly participated in inappropriate conduct of a sexual nature involving a young female juvenile," said Washington police spokesman Ed Kantor.
Hansen said she, her three daughters and one son were home that day. She was making breakfast downstairs while the children were watching TV upstairs, near where a man was installing Internet in their new house. The Hansens had moved in just eight days earlier.
After Hansen's 10-year-old daughter told her about the back bends, she said she went upstairs and sat with the children until Arana left. She then asked her children what had happened. Her 8-year-old daughter told her mother the worker had been taking pictures of them.
(He) told my oldest daughter to do a back bend, moved her skirt so he could take pictures, and actually moved her underwear also so he could take pictures of that. And she saw the images on her phone.
–Gina Hansen
"(He) told my oldest daughter to do a back bend, moved her skirt so he could take pictures, and actually moved her underwear also so he could take pictures of that. And she saw the images on her phone," Hansen said.
The 8-year-old said the man had also asked her to do back bends, but she said no.
Hansen took her children to the Children's Justice Center that same day. Police questioned Arana but according to Hansen, there were no images on his phone.
Investigators later obtained a search warrant for Arana's phone and an investigation "produced multiple images of child pornography," a Washington County Jail report states.
After the warrant was returned, Arana was arrested.
Arana has been installing Internet in homes in the Washington County area for the past year, according to police. Kantor declined to say Thursday what company Arana worked for or whether it was wireless or cable Internet.
Investigators are now asking anyone who had Internet installed within the past year who has young children who may have been alone with an installer for any period of time to call them at 435-986-1515.
Hansen had the company remove the Internet Arana had installed.
"It didn't feel right being reminded about it every time we turned on the Internet," she said.
She said her new home has finally started feeling like a home again, and her children are doing well.
"They are doing excellent. Better than we expected them to be doing. They wanted to go to school the next day. They wanted to get on with life as normal," she said.
But Hansen said she wanted to share what happened to warn other parents and encourage them to talk to their children about stranger danger.
"This really happens and it happens fast. We need to encourage our children to either yell and scream when something like this happens, or to trust us enough to come forward to know it's not their fault," she said. "I wish I could go back. I wish I could reverse time and be with my kids every second of that day.
"It makes me angry. I'm really disappointed that this is out there. I wish that I could trust everybody," she said.
