SALT LAKE CITY -- A reported kidnapping in Salt Lake City turned into a high-speed chase in Park City Wednesday.
According to police, it all began at a McDonald’s at 200 West 600 South when a couple walked into the restaurant and approached a woman.
“I think she was there as a customer, and this couple confronted her and then that’s when they took her,” said Lt. Josh Scharman of the Salt Lake City Police Department.
The couple forced the woman into a car and drove all the way to Park City, according to police, where they then attacked her.
At some point during the fight, the woman managed to escape and began yelling for help, at which point, police said the couple fled. An eyewitness nearby called 911, and police in Summit County began looking for a car that matched their description.
Lt. Randall Richey of the Utah Highway Patrol said they were keeping an eye out for the suspects, who they knew where armed.
“There was a handgun involved in the vehicle and also a knife,” he said. “Our trooper that was sitting up in Parley’s Summit watching for it in case it returned to Salt Lake spotted it as returned over Parley’s Summit.”
The officer who noticed the car alerted others that the couple was heading down I-80 in an orange Chevy Avalanche. Once police were in place, the officer tried to pull the couple over on I-215, but the suspects instead sped up and exited the freeway, hitting two cars along the way.
The accidents, however, didn’t slow them down. But the suspects eventually left the vehicle.
“Turned north on 2300 East and attempted to turn up into this residential area, probably not knowing that it was a cul de sac,” Richey said.
Authorities finally caught up with them in a neighborhood in Millcreek Township, where the couple crashed into a fence. Police said the woman turned herself in, while the man fled into a nearby backyard, which belonged to the Allred family.
Kristin Allred said she immediately called 911 when she saw the intruder.
“I was bringing in groceries, went out my back door and saw a man crouched down in our yard, right next to our back door,” she said.
As she was on the phone with an operator, she noticed armed police officers making their way across her front lawn.
“At that time I heard all the cop cars driving by and the sirens and it clicked that, ‘Oh boy, I better get in the house and lock the door. This could be serious,’” Allred said. “Scary, really scary, grabbed my kids, grabbed our dog, walked up the street.”
Salt Lake City police eventually arrested the man, who turned himself in once surrounded by officers. According to police, the woman suffered a minor injury, which was treated at a nearby hospital.
