Utah Man Accused of Kidnapping 5-Year-Old Girl from Bedroom Faces Parents
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iStock/Thinkstock(SALT LAKE CITY) — The man accused of kidnapping a 5-year-old Utah girl from her bedroom made his first appearance in court Tuesday, facing off with the parents who say they stopped the alleged abduction attempt.
Troy Morley, 48, found himself face-to-face with Aaron and Stephanie Edson, his hands and feet in shackles. Morley is accused of taking their daughter from her bedroom Nov. 7.
Stephanie Holladay Edson credits intuition with waking up the couple.
“I knew something was wrong,” she told ABC News in an exclusive interview days after the incident. “And I yelled to Aaron, I said, ‘She’s outside.’”
Aaron Edson said he ran outside to find his stepdaughter being carried away.
“I said, ‘Really, I want to help you, but she’s got to stay,’” Edson told ABC News. “And I just walked up to him and held out my arms and he just handed her over.”
Police arrested Morley after a neighbor said she found him hiding in her house, allegedly telling her, “I’m in trouble. I’m bad.”
Newly released charging papers also state that he admitted to going inside the home and asking the girl to “come with him.”
The family is still shaken by the incident. “We currently feel that moving from our home may be the only way we can begin to heal,” the family said.
Morley, who was officially notified in court Tuesday of the charges including felony child kidnapping, has yet to enter a plea.
Roger Kraft, Morley’s attorney, said the one-time aerospace worker, who has no apparent serious criminal history, might not be fit to stand trial on kidnapping charges.
“It is likely there might be a petition filed to determine the competency of Troy and whether he can participate in this trial,” Kraft said, “but it is early on in the case. I don’t know.”
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