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OGDEN — When Fred Frazier, head of security at Ogden-Weber Tech College watched the video, he couldn't believe what was happening.
"Honestly, it was heartbreaking. Seeing her over two hours alone in the dark, initially. She covers up in blankets, does the best she can. She's a good girl, she stays right where she was told to stay," he said.
About 5:15 a.m. Sunday, police believe a man took his 5-year-old daughter to the campus, gave her his coat and a blanket, and told her to stay by the back door of the building that houses the children's school. The father then walked away and left the girl alone in the dark with the temperature just above freezing.
The father did not return.
It wasn't until more than two hours later, about 7:30 a.m., when a security guard making rounds at the school saw the young child on the sidewalk. Frazier said she was shivering, shaking and at that point was crying because she had fallen and hurt herself.
Now, Ogden police and the Utah Division of Child and Family Services want to question the father to find out why he abandoned his daughter.
As of Friday, the man had not been arrested or charged, despite the seemingly damaging surveillance video evidence that captured the entire incident.
"We're still going to screen the case, and we're still coordinating with the Division of Child and Family Services, and we're still going to coordinate with the prosecuting attorney's office. Just because it appears to be (a case of abandonment), we have to have the probable cause to ensure that we have the case," said Ogden Police Lt. Danielle Croyle.
Because the man had not been arrested, his name was not released Friday.
In the video, Frazier said the father and daughter can be seen approaching the door of the school, 200 N. Washington Blvd., and quickly discovering it locked and the lights off inside. He said it appeared the father was trying to figure out what to do at that point.
"After about 10 minutes, he sat her down on the porch there by the door and bundled her up with some blankets that were there and then walked away, told her to stay. You can tell in the video he's pointing to stay there and then he leaves campus," he said.
At one point, the girl laid down, covered herself with the blanket and appears to fall asleep, Frazier said. When she wakes up, there is daylight and she starts to walk away from the door, possibly to try to find her way home, he said.
When the security guard found her, "she gave him the story that she and her father had been looking for their dog that had gotten out when her aunt opened the door and he passed out, so she ended up spending the night at the school," Frazier said.
Campus security searched the college grounds for several hours Thursday to make sure the father wasn't passed out somewhere, he said. They did not find him.
After reviewing surveillance video to confirm her story, Frazier took a screen shot of the father and daughter and showed it to the two-day care facilities on campus. Neither recognized the father or daughter as a student.
"So we couldn't understand what the relationship was or why he would bring her to our campus. I still don't know that," Frazier said.
After taking the girl to DCFS, the girl's mother was contacted and picked up her daughter.
