CLEARFIELD, Utah - Relatively new to Utah, Natalie Gonzalez has only been taking the FrontRunner train from Clearfield for a couple of months, but her ride home took a terrifying turn on Saturday night.
“I thought I was going to get kidnapped and raped,” Gonzalez said.
FOX 13 News does not normally reveal the names of victims, but Gonzalez said she wanted to make her story known.
Gonzalez was planning on catching the train home from a friend’s birthday party that evening. Around 9:30, as she sat waiting at the Clearfield stop, she said a man sat down next to her and started making suggestive comments.
According to her, when she stood up and walked away, the man and two others followed and surrounded her at the edge of the platform.
“No one was around, it was just me and them,” Gonzalez said. “At the moment, I looked calm, but in my mind I was freaking out.”
Within seconds, Gonzalez said the man’s comments escalated to an assault.
“He put his right arm over my shoulder and touched my right breast, and I moved in and I was like, ‘Stop, just stop,’” she said. “He put his right arm on my thigh and he rubbed it, and he rubbed it all the way up until I told him stop. I kept trying to push him off, but he was holding on. He was gripping me."
The two other men watched and laughed, Gonzalez said, and she said it wasn't until they heard the sounds of the train coming that they stopped.
For the 15 year old, the night brought back a fear she thought she had moved away from.
“I had been raped when I was 5, and when I was 12 I was molested,” Gonzalez said. “This was just another rerun of my past.”
Gonzalez called her mother, as well as the Clearfield Police Department. Officials said Sunday that they stopped trains in the area, but were unable to spot the men. They plan to review UTA surveillance video in hopes it captured the incident.
“On the way there, I was like, why is this happening again?” said Sandy Manqueros, Gonzalez’s mother. “If I would have just gone to pick her up instead of having her take the train, you know, we’re not from here. The trains and buses are new to us, you know, we could have avoided this.”
Gonzalez said the three men hopped on the incoming train, and she never saw them again. She described all three as African-American males, who she believes are in their ‘20s.
"They deserve to go to jail,” Gonzalez said. “They deserve to suffer, and I hope if they do this to anyone else, they’ll catch them.”
