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UTAH COUNTY -- A Sandy man was arrested on suspicion of kidnapping and rape after a woman used quick thinking to get word to police that she needed help.
Early Thursday morning, a Utah Valley dispatcher got a call from the young woman. She didn't exactly say she was in an emergency.
"[It] was a bit confusing for dispatch, initially," said Utah County sheriff's Lt. Mike Brower.
The woman started carrying on a conversation with the dispatcher, as though they were sisters. But rather than write it off as a prank call, the dispatcher played along.
"She kind of had a gut feeling something was not right with the call," Brower said.
During the call, the woman whispered, "Help me."
"[The dispatcher] started asking yes-and-no questions, and it led ultimately to dispatch finding out that she was being held against her will and needed some help," Brower said.
The woman's call came from an isolated area next to Utah Lake. She had no clear chance to escape, and there was no one around for miles.
"She was able to give enough description to get law enforcement there to help her," Brower said.
Using clues from the caller and GPS from the cell phone, police officers and sheriff's deputies arrived to the location to find a young woman in a vehicle with a man.
The woman was naked, and the man, Jake Machan, was only partially dressed.
The woman told police she and Machan were acquaintances and had met through a mutual friend a month earlier.
She said Machan took her to buy some cigarettes and gave her something to drink, but whatever she drank soon made her sick and extremely tired.
The woman said she repeatedly asked Machan to take her home, but he said he needed to run some errands first. She then fell asleep and woke up to find she had been undressed and Machan was raping her.
When she asked to go home again, he refused to let her go. Just after midnight, she convinced him her sister would be worried and that she needed to give her a call. That's when she dialed 911.
[A] very good call, on the dispatcher's part, to be able to pick up that something wasn't right with the phone call and continue asking questions," Brower said.
Machan was booked into the Utah County Jail around 2 a.m. Thursday for various counts of rape and aggravated kidnapping. He also had other warrants out for his arrest.
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Story compiled with contributions from Jennifer Stagg and Randall Jeppesen.
