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FARMINGTON — A man who investigators say had intentions of taking a 14-year-old Utah boy to California to allegedly sexually abuse him, has been arrested in Davis County.
Austin David Arnold, 36, was booked into the Davis County Jail early Monday for investigation of enticing a minor into sexual activity and sexual abuse of a minor.
The investigation began Sunday when sheriff's deputies responded to a home in northwest Davis County where a 14-year-old boy had allegedly run away early that morning and not returned home, according to a police booking affidavit. Just before 6 p.m., the boy's parents tried calling his phone again.
"There was no answer, but the voicemail message had been changed. This information was relayed to the victim's stepmother who advised officers that this was a distress signal as she had previously instructed the victim to change his voicemail in the event he was in danger," the affidavit states.
By 8:30 p.m., the boy was able to contact his family and told them he was at a hotel in West Bountiful. Police found the teen, who was taken to Primary Children's Hospital as a precaution. Four men who were also found in the room were detained by officers.
According to the affidavit, one of the men, Arnold, is from California and had previously contacted the teen and had traveled in either November or December to meet up with him. On Sunday, he again traveled to Utah with others to meet up with the boy for sexual purposes, the affidavit states.
"Arnold admitted that he and the victim had discussed plans to go to California to stay with Arnold. These statements were further corroborated by text messages between Arnold and the victim, which detectives located during a consent search of the victim's phone. The text messages showed Arnold asked the victim to have sex with him, according to the affidavit.
Arnold also allegedly told police they would find child sex abuse material on his phone. The affidavit states that additional charges may be screened by the Davis County Attorney's Office. It was not immediately known if potential charges would also be screened against the other three men.
