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SALT LAKE CITY -- The man accused of taking his son and daughter from their mother in Utah is back in town. Meanwhile, investigators are still trying to figure out where he was for eight months.
Wayne Frederick Brown disappeared with his 3-year-old daughter and 4-year-old son last July. They were found in Pennsylvania in February, and the kids have since been reunited with their mother here in Utah.
As for where Brown was the whole time, "It's really a very big unknown," says Salt Lake County sheriff's Lt. Don Hutson. "It took a period of time for us to get through the court system and get an extraditable felony warrant."
During that process, Brown was spotted two times trying to cross the border into Canada. Another time, he was stopped in upstate New York. Each time, investigators in Utah knew about it almost immediately, but they couldn't get him arrested without that warrant.
Shortly after that warrant was secured and entered into NCIC, Brown and the kids were spotted in Pennsylvania walking outside in subfreezing cold.
Brown has fought his extradition to Utah, but after more than a month in Pennsylvania, he was returned to Utah and booked in to the Salt Lake County Jail.
E-mail: athomas@ksl.com
