Utah couple charged with sexually, physically abusing foster daughter


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SARATOGA SPRINGS — A Saratoga Springs couple was charged Wednesday with numerous felonies after police say their teenage foster daughter was sexually and physically abused for years.

Starting in 2013 when the girl was 14, prosecutors say she was placed with the foster parents and was subjected to being "repeatedly molested and physically harmed … over this five-year time period" by the husband and was physically harmed by the wife, according to charging documents.

The father, 48, would repeatedly have sex with the girl and "also groomed her by repeatedly showing her pornography," the charges state.

"When she would refuse to have intercourse … he would threaten her with a machete until she complied. Other times he would punish her by pulling her hair, and/or pushing her down the stairs, causing physical injury. Other times, he would threaten to call DCFS and 'send her away' to another home if she didn't comply with his sexual demands," according to the charges.

The Deseret News has opted not to name the couple at this time to avoid identifying the alleged victim.

In 2017, the father "held a bamboo stick to the victim's neck to punish her for again lying to him. This assault cut her neck and she still bears a scar from that," investigators wrote in the court documents.

In August of 2017, the mother, 47, "repeatedly slapped the same 17-year-old foster daughter victim in her face" at a Pleasant Grove charter school where they worked, the charges state. Four days later, the woman "threw a can of sweetened condensed milk at the back of the victim's head when they were arguing before school. This assault caused a 2-3 cm long cut on the victim's head."

A few days after that incident, the woman and foster daughter were arguing at their job "about sweeping the hallway and taking out the trash. (The mother) broke a calculator by striking the victim's face with it," the charges say.

The foster father is charged with two counts of aggravated sexual assault, two counts of rape, two counts of forcible sodomy, and two counts of object rape, all first-degree felonies. He is also charged with two counts of forcible sexual abuse and three counts of child abuse, second-degree felonies; two counts of dealing in harmful materials to a minor, a third-degree felony; and two counts of child abuse, a class A misdemeanor.

Court documents indicate he lives in Lehi.

The wife is charged with child abuse, a second-degree felony.

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Pat Reavy is a longtime police and courts reporter. He joined the KSL.com team in 2021, after many years of reporting at the Deseret News and KSL NewsRadio before that.

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