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Debbie Dujanovic ReportingAn arrest this afternoon in a brutal knife attack above Ogden. Police have a convicted sex offender in custody right now. They say he has confessed to stabbing two sisters yesterday while they hiked with their mother.
Just a few yards up the trail police are going over what could be the camp site where they think 41-year-old Gordon William Thomas was hiding. He's a prison parolee. KSL was up there this afternoon and saw a number of officers on the scene.
Police arrested Thomas this morning and found clothing and other evidence that matched the description the three victims gave.
Thomas told police today they had cornered him. Getting up the canyon was too tough, and there were officers circling the area, so he tried to wait them out after yesterday's attacks.
Assistant Chief Randy Watt, Ogden City Police Dept.: “He was up there beside the trail and it appeared that he was basically waiting, and this was a crime of opportunity.”
Thomas was recently paroled from prison. He escaped from a halfway house last Wednesday. He served 21 years in prison for kidnapping and raping a young woman in the 1980s.
The 20-year old is still in the hospital with some puncture wounds to her lungs, she’s said to be doing okay though. Her 15-year old sister had some knife marks that were stitched up, and she was released. Their mother was not hurt.
The girls’ mother released a statement today thanking everyone who treated them yesterday, also the police and FBI who helped in the search.
