Police searching for suspect in reported kidnapping attempt
May 17, 2018, 7:31 PM | Updated: May 18, 2018, 10:19 pm
SOUTH JORDAN, Utah – Residents and police in South Jordan have been looking for a suspect who they said tried to abduct an 11-year-old girl as she walked home from school in her Daybreak neighborhood.
“She was crossing the bridge going home and the guy came up from her,” said Lt. Matt Pennington with South Jordan Police Department.
Police say the attempted abduction happened at the 11-year-old girl was halfway across this bridge.
The attempted abduction occurred sometime between 4 p.m. and 5 p.m. Wednesday, as the girl was in the area of 4900 W. South Jordan Parkway, according to the police department, which increased patrols in the neighborhood on Thursday.
“This guy came up behind her and grabbed her arm and started to pull her and drag her with him,” said the girl’s mother, Lisa Hughes. “She pulled her arm away, tried to pull her arm away, and he continued to grab her. She turned around and bit him.”
After biting the man on the arm, the 6th grader managed to run away. She traveled through Brookside Park underneath the bridge, and then ran into a part of the neighborhood she wasn’t familiar with.
Lisa Hughes said her 11-year-old daughter fought back against a would-be kidnapper near their South Jordan home.
“There were fingernail marks dug inside of her arm really deep and her arm was really swollen,” Hughes said of what her daughter looked like when she arrived home.
After learning what happened, Hughes called police around 7 p.m.
“She had some marks on her left arm,” Lt. Pennington said of the girl’s injuries.
Officers described the man as a white male, between 20 and 30 years old, with hazel eyes and mustache. He was wearing a black hoodie with white draw strings and dark colored jeans at the time of the incident.
“My heart just aches for her and is just aching for what it might have been,” Hughes said. “I want to find out who this guy is and want to get him off of our streets.”
The sixth grader was walking in the area of 4900 W. South Jordan Parkway.
Police said the girl did the right thing by fighting back and said all parents should teach their kids to do the same.
“Statistically, if you are abducted that doesn’t end well,” Lt. Pennington said. “Fight, yell, scream, make a lot of noise, draw attention and don’t quit.”
“I’m grateful that she bit as hard as she could,” Hughes said. “I’m so grateful that she is a fighter and she yanked away and she wouldn’t stop until she got away.”
Police urge anyone who saw the suspect, or has surveillance video that could help in the investigation, to call 801-840-4000.
