CRIME
Murder suspect’s father says his son had a troubled life
May 9, 2018, 6:02 PM | Updated: May 10, 2018, 1:20 am
Police arrested Shaun French, 24, in Otero County, Colorado. (Courtesy: Otero County Sheriff’s Office)
(Courtesy: Otero County Sheriff’s Office)
EVANSTON, Wyo. – “I can relax now,” Darrell French said after learning his son had been safely taken into custody in Colorado.
Shaun French, 24, is now facing murder charges for the death of Baleigh Bagshaw, who was killed Monday afternoon in her home in Salt Lake City.
Shaun French is also accused of having an illegal sexual relationship with Bagshaw.
Related: Utah homicide suspect arrested in Colorado
Police say Baleigh Bagshaw, 15, was brutally attacked inside her Salt Lake City home on May 7, 2018.
French’s father spoke to KSL TV on the phone from his home in Evanston, Wyo., Wednesday afternoon.
He said his son had a troubled life, but he’s relieved that he’s safely in custody after running from the law for nearly two full days.
Darrell French said he was afraid of what might have happened to his son.
“I don’t know what kind of mental state he’s in and what he might do,” he said.
Darrell French said he adopted Shaun and his younger brother when Shaun was one. He said Shaun helped look after his younger brother but started getting into trouble as a child.
“I had him to a therapist from the age of four years old to the age of about 11,” said Darrell. “He did get in fights, but not a lot of them. People pushed him and stuff like that because he didn’t get along in school well.”
Shaun French, 24, is in custody in Colorado.
Darrell told KSL TV his family was nearly evicted from their mobile home park because Shaun tampered with the electric meters and also threw rocks at a neighbor’s home.
Monday night, when he heard on the news that police were looking for his son in connection with the murder of Baleigh Bagshaw, he couldn’t believe it.
“It shocked me to a degree,” he said. “But I can’t put two and two together.”
He said his son lived in the Bagshaw home from about Christmas 2016 until July 2017 when Shaun moved back in with him in Evanston. In November, Darrell kicked him out.
He said the two have talked on the phone several times since, and Shaun even bought him three tires for his SUV.
When he suspected his son was getting two close to the 15-year-old teen, he gave him a warning.
“I told the young man that he needed to leave that young lady alone because she was too young for him,” he said.
As for the murder police say his son committed, “I’m gonna leave that question in the air.”
