Disturbing details emerge in Duchesne County human trafficking case

Disturbing details emerge in Duchesne County human trafficking case

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DUCHESNE — An 18-year-old woman was held captive in a shed for weeks in 2014 and forced to perform sex acts to receive food and water, according to Duchesne County prosecutors.

On Sunday, authorities confirmed that Jared Stephen Morgan, 37, of Sandy, had been arrested on a warrant issued in Duchesne County for charges of aggravated human trafficking, aggravated sexual assault, aggravated kidnapping, rape and forcible sodomy — all first-degree felonies.

On Monday, a probable cause statement attached to the charges was unsealed in 8th District Court, revealing a disturbing scenario involving at least two young women whom Morgan may have been grooming since they were juveniles. The names of the girls involved were redacted in court documents.

The alleged kidnapping happened in June and July 2014, according to court records. But one of the women involved only stepped forward last week.

The woman, now 20, said she first met Morgan in 2013 when he began dating her mother. She was 17 at the time. Morgan became a "father figure" to her and he told her to call him "papa," charges state.

According to the charges, Morgan one day took the 17-year-old to a cabin he owned in Duchesne County and performed sexual acts on her.

Another time at the cabin again, Morgan told the girl, who was 18 at the time, that he "had set up a ruse for (her) to tell her mother she was going into the military," according to charging documents. Morgan even made falsified papers to show the girl's family that she was being sent to Texas, including a false flight itinerary, charges state.

Morgan told the girl that she "had to cut all ties with her family if she was going to stay in a relationship with him," according to the charges.

During this time, another young girl came to the cabin. It was later learned that the girl was a runaway from Sandy in 2012. Morgan had taken that girl to Mexico when she was 16 until she was 18 "so she could come back and live with him," charges state.

That's when Morgan told the first girl that "the three of them would be in a relationship together," according to charging documents. He said people "were looking" for the other girl and there "couldn't be any trace" of them, charges state.

Morgan even forced one of the girls, presumably the runaway from Sandy, to "cut her hair off and dye it," wear glasses and nose rings "to make her unidentifiable," and use tanning lotion to change the color of her skin, according to the charges.

Morgan also took one of the girls' cellphones "and destroyed it so she could not make contact with any of her family or friends," though it's unclear which girl had her phone destroyed in court documents because of redacted names.

In June 2014, when Morgan and the first girl were back at the cabin in Duchesne County, he locked her in a shed for several days following an argument, charges state. Morgan then told the girl she had to eat rat feces off the floor and drink a cup of urine without throwing up in order to receive food, according to charging documents.

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The girl told prosecutors, "I didn't puke," and was given "a small cup of water" and a can of cold ravioli, charges state. Still locked in the shed, Morgan then told her she would have to perform sex acts to receive more food and water, charges state.

"She didn't dare tell him no as she was afraid he would not give her any food or water," according to charging documents.

At other times, Morgan would hold a Taser in one hand and threaten to use it if she didn't allow him to rape her, charges state.

When asked how long she stayed in the shed, the woman told investigators she didn't know exactly, but "went in around the first of June 2014 and was not let out until sometime in the middle of July," according to the charges.

After the last time Morgan assaulted the girl, he drove her back to Sandy and told the girl, "If you tell her … I will end you," apparently referring to the runaway girl, charges state.

Morgan was previously charged in 3rd District Court in 2012 with rape, sodomy and aggravated sex abuse of a child. The case was dismissed in 2013 after prosecutors said they could no longer proceed with the likelihood of achieving a conviction, according to court records.

In that case, charges allege that Morgan was assaulting the 12-year-old daughter of a woman he was dating, beginning in 2006, according to charging documents.

It was not immediately known Monday whether the girl in that case was the Sandy runaway Morgan allegedly took to Mexico in 2012 until she turned 18.

But according to Sandy police, initially there were reports of both the alleged victim and her younger sister being abused. The case with the sister was still being screened with the Salt Lake County District Attorney's Office when she ran away in 2012 at age 16. The girl had denied being assaulted by Morgan, even though her sister told investigators it happened, according to police.

Then in 2014, the young girl re-emerged. She went with her attorney to a police department in Davis County and asked to be removed from the missing persons database that all police departments have access to, said Sandy Police Sgt. Dean Carriger. She was removed.

But Carriger said as of Monday, the girl still refuses to talk to any Sandy police detectives about what may have happened to her or where she disappeared to for two years.

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Pat Reavy

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