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SPANISH FORK — A 17-year-old boy has been arrested and accused of kidnapping a 12-year-old girl from her Utah County home and sexually assaulting her.
The girl was rescued thanks to an alert lieutenant with the Utah County Sheriff's Office.
Investigators believe sometime before 5 a.m. Tuesday — possibly between 4 a.m. and 4:30 a.m. — a 17-year-old boy went to a young girl's house. The two had met on social media and interacted with each other for the past couple of months, said Utah County Sheriff's Sgt. Spencer Cannon. But the girl never told the boy where she lived.
Somehow, the boy figured out where the girl lived and went to her home, Cannon said. The sheriff's office declined to say Tuesday where in Utah County the girl lives.
Cannon said investigators were also still trying to determine Tuesday what happened at the home — whether the teen went inside and grabbed the girl or somehow convinced her to walk outside on her own. Either way, Cannon said investigators do not believe the girl drove off with the teenager willingly.
About 5:10 a.m., a sheriff's lieutenant spotted a car parked in a lot near Arrowhead Trail on Main Street in Spanish Fork. The vehicle's lights were on and the car was not parked properly in a stall. Knowing that none of the businesses in that area were open at that time, the officer turned around to investigate, Cannon said.
By the time the officer got back to the parking lot, the car was on the move. Cannon said the lieutenant pulled the vehicle over near the Spanish Fork Fairgrounds for going 20 mph over the speed limit.
The driver initially said he was 16 and the girl said she was 14. But after getting several conflicting stories, he learned the real ages of the two and what was happening.
After driving the girl to several locations, the boy took the girl to the area where they were spotted by the lieutenant, and he sexually assaulted the girl, according to Cannon.
"She tried to resist and the boy told her that before they left, she was going to have sex with him," according to a statement from the sheriff's office.
The car the teen was driving was reported stolen earlier in the morning out of Salt Lake County, Cannon said.
The teen, from Salt Lake County and whose name was not released, was booked into the Slate Canyon Youth Detention Center for investigation of child kidnapping, vehicle theft, obstruction of justice, giving false information to an officer, and not having a valid driver's license or insurance.
The alleged sex offenses are being investigated by Spanish Fork police.
