Investigators eventually used the information from the cell phone tower to locate the missing teenager.
Photo: Jim Vondruska / Getty Images
A missing college student from Utah was found naked, but alive, in the basement of a man’s homeas reported by the police
Madelyn Allen, a 19-year-old student from Snow College in Ephraim, Utah, was reunited with her family after being rescued Saturday night, about five days after disappearing from her dorm, Snow College Police Chief Derek Walk told reporters. in a conference.
Brent Neil Brown, 39, who allegedly held Allen captive at his home in Loa, Utah For days after meeting her online, she faces felony charges of aggravated kidnapping, rape, rape with an object and obstruction of justice, KSTU reported.
“We don’t have much information about him,” Walk told reporters. “We don’t know how extensive their relationship is or her knowledge of him so far.”
Allen, originally from Kaysville, had met with Brown in an online chat group and had arranged for him to pick her up on December 13, according to a probable cause affidavit obtained by the Salt Lake Tribune.
Brown reportedly turned violent in the following days, although he allowed Allen to text his family on December 14.
He then took the teen’s phone and wallet, tied her up while he was at work, and threatened to hunt down her family if she left, or told someone, according to the affidavit in the case.
Investigators eventually used information from the cell phone tower to locate the missing teenager in the city of about 500 residents, the newspaper reported.
Loa is almost 90 miles from Snow College.
Brown opened the door to his home and said he was alone, but police later found Allen in a basement room, where he was naked and covered in coal, court documents show.
Allen’s parents, Jonathan and Taunya Allen, said they were very happy to be reunited with their daughter Sunday after she was checked in at a hospital. His injuries were unclear.
“We fell to our knees,” Jonathan Allen said when he received the call from police on Saturday. “We were so grateful, euphoric. (We) couldn’t describe the feelings we had when we hugged. “
Allen suffered a “dangerous and traumatic” ordeal that she and her family are just beginning to understand, her uncle said.
“She is a fighter,” Uncle Jacob Allen told reporters. “Now she is a survivor. We are grateful that he is back with us so that now he can recover. ” A judge ordered Brown to be held without bail on Sunday, KSTU reported. It is unclear if he has retained an attorney who can comment on his behalf.