Police have arrested a man in connection with the five-day disappearance of Snow College student Madelyn Allen.
Allen, 19, had been missing since Monday, when she was last seen leaving her Snow College dorm room around 9:22 p.m. Police said they found Allen on Saturday in Wayne County, in the home of a 39-year-old man.
Snow College Police Chief Derek Walk said the man was being held on suspicion of obstruction of justice.
“This is an ongoing investigation. There are certain aspects we are still digging into and trying to understand fully,” Walk said at a Sunday afternoon news conference
Snow College security footage showed Allen leaving her dorm Monday night, wearing a white fleece jacket and a dark skirt and carrying a plastic bag. Allen’s roommates at the central Utah school reported her missing when she did not return home the next day.
Local, state and federal law enforcement officers were involved in the search for the missing woman.
On Saturday night, the school and Allen’s family reported that the woman had been found.
“We got the phone call and [Walk] said, ‘I have her.’ We dropped to our knees,” Allen’s father, Jonathan Allen, said. “We were so grateful, elated. We couldn’t describe the feelings that we had as we embraced each other.”
Officials offered few details about the five days Allen was missing, her connection to the Wayne County man, or how they ultimately located the 19-year-old.
“We don’t have a lot of information about him,” Walk said. “We met him for the first time last night. We don’t know how extensive his relationship or her knowledge of him is thus far.”
During his remarks, Snow College President Bradley Cook cautioned young people to be careful about online interactions.
“It reminds us of some dangers, especially our young people who are online,” he said. “You need to be careful. … We just have to be ever vigilant about those kinds of interactions.”
Reading from a statement, Jacob Allen, the woman’s uncle, said: “The ordeal that she has been through is dangerous and traumatic, the details of which we have only begun to understand. She is a fighter. She is now a survivor. We are grateful she is with us again so she can now recover.”
Officials declined to offer more details about the case and its timeline.
Candlelight vigils that had been planned for Sunday night on the Snow College campus in Ephraim and in Allen’s hometown of Kaysville will now be “gatherings of gratitude” after the 19-year-old was reunited with her family.
“We are so excited to have our Madelyn home,” mother Taunya Allen said. “We love her so much and she has been such a light and joy in our lives. We are so grateful that we can continue our lives together with her.”
from The Salt Lake Tribune https://ift.tt/3qdxm0m
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