Estimated read time: 3-4 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 Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information.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.
LOA, Wayne County — A man accused of sexually assaulting a Snow College student and holding her for several days against her will was formally charged Tuesday with several felony crimes.
Brent Neil Brown, 39, of Loa, is charged in 6th District Court with aggravated kidnapping, rape, object rape and aggravated sexual assault, all first-degree felonies; plus second-degree felony counts of aggravated assault and obstructing justice.
Brown is accused of picking up the 19-year-old woman, whom he met on an app, from the college and taking her back to his parents' residence. While the woman is believed to have initially gone willingly with Brown, she was soon assaulted and was not allowed to leave, according to charging documents. Her disappearance sparked a nearly weeklong search.
Part of the investigation into the woman's disappearance focused on apps that police learned she had been using, the charges state.
"Text messages recovered from (her) phone records contained conversations of a violent sexual nature. These conversations indicate that she may have been exposed to dangerous individuals with violent tendencies," the charges state, adding that some of those conversations referenced "activities of a violent nature" and "may have contributed to the situation."
After pinging the woman's phone, "an extensive search" was launched in the Loa area, according to the charges. Investigators believed that based on the intermittent signals they were getting, her phone was being turned on and off.
When police came to Brown's residence on Saturday, he initially did not allow officers inside to search, the charges state. After obtaining permission from the owners of the house, detectives entered and "quickly found a Snow College ID" belonging to the missing woman.
"A gun was located in an open suitcase that contained clothes that appear to belong to (the woman)," the court documents state.
Brown was detained as detectives continued a more extensive search of the home. The woman was found in "a coal storage area of the residence … completely covered in coal," according to the charges. She was not wearing any clothing and her hair had been cut.
When Brown was interviewed, he admitted to picking up the woman in Ephraim on Dec. 13, but claimed that taking her phone from her and turning it off was part of a "role-play," according to the charges. Furthermore, police say Brown told them he would tie the woman up during the day when he went to work.
The woman told police that what happened after she was picked up was against her will.
By Dec. 14, the woman told police "she realized the situation she was in and began worrying she would not be able to leave," according to the charges.
Brown allowed the woman to text her parents a message on Dec. 14 stating "I love you" before taking her phone away again and turning it off, police say. Brown also threatened to go after the woman's family if she "told anyone about him," the charges state.
The woman told police that Brown, who police say is 6 feet 2 inches tall and weighs 250 pounds, always wore a large knife around his belt and would easily overpower her and assaulted her multiple times, according to charging documents.
After seeing news reports of the woman being missing and the search that was being conducted, Brown threw the woman's phone into the trash at a local store but told her that he had shipped it to Arizona, according to the charges.
Brown was charged in 2017 in Box Elder County with tampering with a witness, a third-degree felony, according to court records. He failed to show up for a court hearing in March 2018 and a warrant was issued for his arrest. That warrant remained outstanding at the time of Brown's arrest in Loa. Brown is accused in that case of texting a victim in another case and telling that person not to testify in court against his friend. Brown was also convicted of simple assault in 2001.
