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SALT LAKE CITY -- Two Utah teenagers hatched a plot to torture and kill two middle school students and a school resource officer. One of the plotter's parents discovered the plan and called police.
When Murray police interviewed the teenagers, they told officers they were not joking around; they wanted to hurt people and planned to meet the next day to come up with an even more detailed hit list. Now they're each charged with three counts of conspiracy to commit aggravated kidnapping.
It was the violent "Saw" movie series that allegedly inspired the two to come up with a hit list of three people they wanted to kidnap, torture and kill. The 14-year-old Midvale Middle School student and 15-year-old West High School student told detectives they wanted to "harm people who had done harm to others."
According to court documents, the hit list included a student at Granite Parks Middle School, a student at Midvale Middle School and the school's resource officer.
Police learned of the case after the 15-year-old's mother listened in on a phone call. She heard them discuss the plan and "how they would lure these victims to locations they had picked out."
The case was news to the public information officers in all three school districts involved. Jordan School District refused to go on camera, saying it's a police matter.
Salt Lake School District says it's working with law enforcement to learn more and, if nothing else, this is a reminder to students and parents to report suspicious activity.
"We rely heavily on students to give us information on issues like this, especially when it can help us avoid something dangerous," said Jason Olsen, spokesman for the Salt Lake School District.
We know only limited information about the suspects since they are juveniles. We talked to someone who knows one of the teens and says there's been no history of behavior problems.
E-mail: sdallof@ksl.com
