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SALT LAKE CITY (AP) -- The man accused of kidnapping a 5-year-old Mapleton boy two weeks ago has been charges in two alleged abduction attempts in Provo.
The charges of child kidnapping and attempted child kidnapping were filed Wednesday against Robert Allen Kartchner, 20, of Orem.
The new charges relate to incidents on June 18, 2002, and March 4 in Provo and will be part of a single case against Kartchner that will include the Oct. 9 Mapleton abduction.
Kartchner is to undergo a 45-day evaluation at Utah State Hospital to determine if he is competent to stand trial. A mental competency hearing was set Dec. 3.
In the June 2002 incident, a man drove up to an 11-year-old boy, picked him up and walked toward his van, according to a probable cause statement by Provo Police Detective Hiatt Bean. The child struggled and the man released him. The incident fits within the state statute for child kidnapping, a first-degree felony, Deputy Utah County Attorney Donna M. Kelly said.
In the March case, an 8-year-old boy was cornered in a church parking lot by a man who told him to get in his van, according to the probable cause statement. The boy ran and hid in bushes until the man left.
Kartchner, 20, of Orem, was charged Friday with child kidnapping and two counts of child abuse in the Oct. 9 abduction of a Mapleton boy, who was riding his scooter home from school.
The boy was driven 15 miles to the Diamond Fork area of Spanish Fork Canyon, where the abductor slowly cut the boy's arm, neck and thigh. Investigators said the assailant choked the boy with the remains of a T-shirt and then threw the child into the bushes and drove off. The boy was found by workers. Kartchner was arrested when he drove through the Diamond Fork area several hours later.
(Copyright 2003 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
