A 19-year-old man is in jail after he reportedly used a dating app to lure a woman to a Davis County park, stabbed her repeatedly, and then went and stabbed another woman. He told police he intended to kill them and others — including his family.
According to the Davis County Sheriff’s Office, the suspect had been messaging his first victim on Tinder. He convinced her to meet him at Mueller Park, about 5 miles from Bountiful, on Thursday at about 6:30 p.m. When she arrived, according to a probable cause statement, he “coerced her into his vehicle” and stabbed her repeatedly with a knife that had “a fixed blade nearly a foot in length.”
The victim fought with the suspect, got out of the car and ran. According to police, the suspect stabbed her in the back as she ran toward other people in the park. She suffered life-threatening injuries, and was taken to a hospital in critical condition.
The suspect then drove to another location in Bountiful, and he threw the victim’s cell phone away “in an area where he believed it would not be found.”
At the second location, the suspect approached another woman and stabbed her several times, “causing life-threatening injuries.” She, too, was taken to a hospital in critical condition. The victims’ names have not been released, and their conditions were not available on Friday.
The suspect left the area, and was later taken into custody by police. According to the probable cause statement, the suspect told police he had been planning to murder the first victim since he began interacting with her on Tinder. He said he invited her to Mueller Park “with the intent of luring her into his car and killing her”; that he held her against her will; and that he stabbed her in an attempt to “kill her.”
According to police, he said he threw the victim’s phone away to get rid of evidence.
The suspect went on to say, according to the probable cause statement, that he approached the second victim “because she was elderly, alone and vulnerable,” and that he also intended to kill her.
According to police, the suspect also told them he planned to kill other people — that he made “plans to live out of his car, and even took steps to pack … food to sustain him” while he acted on “his desire to continue to kill people who he thought were vulnerable.”
Police said the suspect “talked at length about killing his parents and siblings with a pick ax” that he had at home, and that “if he was released he would continue his plans to kill” people he contacted on social media apps.
The suspect was booked into the Davis County jail for investigation of attempted murder and obstruction of justice. He is being held without bail.
The Salt Lake Tribune generally does not name suspects until they have been charged with a crime.
from The Salt Lake Tribune https://ift.tt/1YJyNpd
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