Ogden man charged with kidnapping that led to Amber Alert extradited to Utah

Christopher Thomas Wiggins, 34, was charged Nov. 26 with child kidnapping, a first-degree felony. He was arrested in Fort Collins, Colorado, before being extradited to Utah.

Christopher Thomas Wiggins, 34, was charged Nov. 26 with child kidnapping, a first-degree felony. He was arrested in Fort Collins, Colorado, before being extradited to Utah. (Weber County)


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KEY TAKEAWAYS
  • Christopher Wiggins, 34, was extradited to Utah to face a child kidnapping charge.
  • Wiggins allegedly kidnapped a 13-year-old girl prompting an Amber Alert on Nov. 26.
  • Wiggins' first court appearance is scheduled for Thursday.

OGDEN — An Ogden man charged with taking a 13-year-old girl from her home, prompting police to issue an Amber Alert, was booked into the Weber County Jail on Tuesday.

Christopher Thomas Wiggins, 34, was charged Nov. 26 in 2nd District Court with child kidnapping, a first-degree felony. A warrant for his arrest was issued shortly after, so the extradition process to return Wiggins to Utah from Colorado could begin.

The warrant was recalled on Wednesday after Wiggins was booked into the Weber County Jail, according to court documents. His first court appearance is scheduled for Thursday morning.

The arrest warrant outlined confrontations between Wiggins and the girl's parents in the days leading up to the Amber Alert, after they discovered alleged sexual abuse by Wiggins against their daughter. In addition, Wiggins allegedly shot at the girl's mother, the warrant states.

On Nov. 26, an Amber Alert was issued about 5 p.m. after the 13-year-old girl had been reported missing earlier in the afternoon. Wiggins, a family friend, had been living with the girl's family "for some time," according to police.

The girl was found safe a few hours later near Fort Collins, Colorado, and Wiggins was arrested.

Wiggins and the girl had been missing since about 3 a.m. that day. Police say Wiggins left his own young daughter alone in his trailer.

The girl's mother told police that a couple of days prior, she had found an explicit picture on her daughter's phone. "She confronted Chris, who admitted to sending the intimate image to the victim," according to the warrant.

Then on Nov. 24, while the mother sat in her car — parked several blocks away from their home — with her daughter to talk to her about Wiggins, police said Wiggins "found them and shot a firearm at them. Officers were shown the bullet hole in the back of the car. The slug was recovered," the warrant states.

"Once again, the victim and her husband confronted Chris about the incident. Chris apologized and gave them the firearm he had used. The (mother) then gave the firearm back to Chris," according to the warrant.

The next day, the girl told her parents she had been "intimate" with Wiggins, at which point her parents "told Chris to stay away from the victim," the warrant says.

Police served a search warrant on Wiggins' trailer and found a note that he allegedly wrote to the girl.

"The note expresses great love and affection. The note contains statements of extreme love, such as, 'You are my everything,' 'I can't possibly live this life without you,' 'I will sacrifice everything to be with you forever,' and "'If it costs me my life, you are worth it to me,'" according to the warrant.

Wiggins was convicted in 2011 of two counts of attempted unlawful sexual activity with a minor. Police note the victim in that case was 14.

Investigators were able to "ping" the girl's phone in Rock Springs, Wyoming, at 1:30 p.m., and a license plate reader detected Wiggins' vehicle in Fort Collins about 5 p.m.

The vehicle was found in Wellington, Colorado, north of Fort Collins, and Wiggins and the girl were located nearby.

Correction: An earlier version incorrectly reported Wiggins was booked into the Weber County Jail on Wednesday instead of Tuesday.

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The Key Takeaways for this article were generated with the assistance of large language models and reviewed by our editorial team. The article, itself, is solely human-written.

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Cassidy Wixom, KSLCassidy Wixom
Cassidy Wixom is an award-winning reporter for KSL. She covers Utah County communities, arts and entertainment, and breaking news. Cassidy graduated from BYU before joining KSL in 2022.

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