Springville woman recounts seeing, reporting Amber Alert suspect with his kids

SPRINGVILLE — A Springville woman has a message for fellow Utahns after she said she spotted the truck and suspect involved in Monday's Amber Alert.

The witness, who asked to remain anonymous for safety reasons, said she and her husband were on a drive up the left fork of Hobble Creek Canyon Monday night when they saw a man and two young children.

"We both commented on how odd it was that it's getting late; it's cold out to be out walking with the two littles in the middle of the road," she said. "It was just very bizarre."

She said a white truck was parked on the side of the road. She made eye contact with the man.

"He did look worried," she said.

She thought he may have been concerned about his children walking near traffic. She said something felt off.

"Immediately as we passed and I asked my husband, 'What if that's the man from the Amber Alert?' because there was that truck that we saw for like a split second," she said.

She admits she and her husband didn't pay close attention to the alert when it came through earlier that day.

"A common remark upon, like, my girlfriends and just like family, was that they don't pay too much attention because usually everybody concludes that it's a couple who's in a fight and one spouse got mad that the other took the kids," she said.

They didn't have cell reception on the canyon road, so they couldn't check their phones to see if this truck and man matched the alert's descriptions. She remembered the alert came from Riverdale, miles away.

"My stomach just dropped, and I kept thinking about it. In that moment, I was like, 'What if it is,'" she said.

She said she and her husband had a lot of doubts.

"The man was Hispanic, and you always hear how people of color, like, I was worried if we called it in that, I don't know, I didn't want to, like, stereotype anybody," she said. "I was nervous about that, but we did wonder because it really was fitting of the description."

Minutes later, the couple decided to turn around. They saw a police officer was now parked behind the truck.

"We told him, 'Hey, we don't know if we should report this, we don't know if it's any of our business, but we did see a man with two little kids,'" she said.

She said the officer confirmed it was the Amber Alert suspect, and he had been taken into custody.

"It's so important to trust our gut," she said.

The Utah County Sheriff's Office said a tip led officers to finding these children and arresting Ricardo Trujillo Rojel.

"This is an example of how the Amber system can work, and work really well and fast," said Sgt. Ray Ormond.

This witness said she will closely read descriptions and vehicle information from now on.

"Definitely going to be paying attention to the vehicle descriptions, looking at it more, not just like a family problem that somebody is having, but looking at it as, we don't know the circumstance, and we should be on the lookout because you don't know; they might make it all the way down to where you're living, and you can actually help," she said.

KSL saw investigators from multiple agencies back up at the scene Wednesday, where these children were found and Trujillo was arrested. They said they were gathering evidence.

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