- Ryan Gary Patch, of Ohio, was sentenced Thursday to 15 years in federal prison for kidnapping a teen.
- Patch met the 15-year-old online and was attempting to transport her from California to Ohio.
- The victim contacted her parents and he was arrested in Cedar City.
ST. GEORGE — An Ohio man arrested in Cedar City last year was sentenced Thursday to 15 years in prison for kidnapping and sexually abusing a teenager from California, the U.S. Attorney's Office for Utah announced.
Ryan Gary Patch, 28, of Dayton, Ohio, was sentenced to a lifetime of supervised release after he serves his 15 years at an Ohio federal prison. He was also ordered to pay the victim $11,093.15 in restitution. In March, Patch pleaded guilty in federal court to transporting a minor with the intent to engage in criminal sexual activity.
Patch met the 15-year-old girl online and communicated with her via Snapchat and Instagram, the U.S. Attorney's Office for Utah said.
On July 24, 2024, Cedar City police received a report of an abducted minor who was taken from her home in California and was being transported through Utah on her way to Ohio.
Patch had broken the girl's phone and told her to delete the social media accounts they had communicated on, but the girl was able to create a new Instagram account on an iPad and contact her parents, federal prosecutors said. She told them she was by the Love's Travel Stop in Cedar City and the man who took her had a knife, had hit her and was forcing her to smoke marijuana, which was making her disoriented.
Cedar City police tracked down the car she described and located a teenage girl in the back seat and an adult man sleeping in the front seat. Patch claimed to police that the girl was his sister, but after speaking with her, officers confirmed she was the abduction victim they were searching for, the U.S. Attorney's Office said.
Police arrested Patch and located marijuana vape cartridges and a knife during a search of his vehicle, according to a police booking affidavit.
Patch was charged in Utah's 5th District Court with aggravated kidnapping, endangerment of a child, drug possession and drug paraphernalia possession. Those charges were dismissed in April, however, when the federal case took over and he was transferred to be a federal inmate.
Police located child sexual abuse materials depicting the victim on the iPad in the vehicle, the U.S. Attorney's Office for Utah said. Patch's social media accounts were examined and officers discovered more child sexual abuse material and his plans to retrieve the girl. Explicit messages with other accounts that appeared to belong to minors were also discovered, the statement said.
"It was only due to the victim's technological savvy and quick thinking that Patch's terrifying plan was undone. Nonetheless, his abduction of the victim has inflicted trauma no one should have to endure," said acting U.S. Attorney Felice John Viti of the District of Utah. "Communities are safer with defendants like Patch behind bars, and it is our hope that the victim and her family can continue to heal knowing justice is being served."
