Man found with missing 12-year-old is charged with kidnapping, sexual assault

A Moroni man arrested earlier this week after allegedly leading police on a chase has now been charged with abducting the 12-year-old girl found in the stolen truck police say he was driving.

A Moroni man arrested earlier this week after allegedly leading police on a chase has now been charged with abducting the 12-year-old girl found in the stolen truck police say he was driving. (Andy Dean Photography, Alamy)


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KEY TAKEAWAYS
  • Aiden Dramore Larsen, 20, charged with kidnapping and sexually assaulting a 12-year-old.
  • Larsen led police on a chase in a stolen truck before being arrested.
  • He was already on probation for vehicle theft at the time of arrest.

MORONI, Sanpete County — A man who allegedly led police on a chase with a missing 12-year-old girl earlier this week has now been charged with abducting and sexually assaulting the girl.

Aiden Dramore Larsen, 20, of Moroni, Sanpete County, was charged Friday afternoon in Sevier County's 6th District Court with rape of a child, a first-degree felony. Earlier in the day, he was charged in Sanpete County in 6th District Court with child kidnapping, a first-degree felony, and theft by receiving a motor vehicle, a second-degree felony.

Larsen was also charged Wednesday with failing to stop for police, a third-degree felony, in connection with the police chase.

The Sanpete County Sheriff's Office announced on Tuesday that it was trying to find a missing 12-year-old girl. The girl's mother reported to police that her father's truck was missing and her daughter was not home, according to an arrest warrant affidavit for Larsen.

"Upon searching the home, I discovered that there was no evidence that the child had been forcibly abducted, and the family suspected that the child had stolen the truck after taking the keys from her grandfather's room," the investigating deputy wrote in the warrant. "I quickly learned that the child had been involved with a 20-year-old man, identified as Aiden Larsen. This information originated from a previous case that is still under investigation."

Using data from license plate reader cameras, investigators learned the missing vehicle was in the Nephi area about 5:40 a.m. that morning. Deputies also learned that Larsen had provided the girl with a second cellphone, the warrant states. Investigators "pinged" that phone and discovered it was still in the Nephi area about 11 a.m. Using additional investigative tools, police then tracked Larsen to the Richfield area just before 3 p.m.

A short time after notifying Richfield police that Larsen may be in the area, an officer spotted the missing truck and attempted to pull it over.

"Aiden fled from the sergeant, and a pursuit was initiated. UHP assumed control over the pursuit, which ended in a field near Monroe after multiple spike-strip deployments," according to the warrant.

The chase went up Clear Creek Canyon, where police were able to spike the fleeing vehicle's front tires, a police booking affidavit adds.

"The vehicle entered the Sevier RV park before running through multiple fences," according to the affidavit.

After their vehicle was stopped, "Aiden and the child (ran) from law enforcement in Sevier County. However, both were eventually taken into custody without serious injuries," the warrant says.

When questioned, the girl said she had taken the vehicle about 5 a.m. and met up with Larsen in Moroni.

Police say Larsen was already on probation at the time of his arrest for a conviction of vehicle theft.

The Key Takeaways for this article were generated with the assistance of large language models and reviewed by our editorial team. The article, itself, is solely human-written.

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Pat Reavy interned with KSL NewsRadio in 1989 and has been a full-time journalist for either KSL NewsRadio, Deseret News or KSL.com since 1991. For the past 25 years, he has worked primarily the cops and courts beat.
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