Madelyn Allen.Photo: Facebook
When Utah collegeMadelyn Allenwent missing, police sprang into action.
Allen, 19, was last seen leaving her dorm at Snow College in Ephraim around 9:22 p.m. on Dec. 13. At 7:20 a.m. the following morning, she sent a text message to one of her parents saying, “I love you.”
The seemingly out-of-nowhere text, without any context, also struck the parents as suspicious.
“I think [Allen’s parents] felt it was a little odd because there wasn’t more with it,” Sanpete County Attorney Kevin L. Daniels tells PEOPLE.
Daniels says authorities also grew concerned when they discovered messages on her phone “of a nature that led them to believe that she may have been exposed to individuals with dangerous intentions and motives.”
According to the affidavit, investigators on Dec. 18 discovered more cell phone pings in Loa and began a massive search for the missing teen in the town with a population of about 500.
“Law enforcement, just pure foot-to-the-pavement, knocked on almost every door in Loa,” says Daniels. “We didn’t know she was in Loa; we knew that her last pinged location was in Loa.”
During the foot search, officers stopped at a house, peered through a basement window and saw “a person with light colored hair and a small build,” the affidavit states.
“Whether you believe in divine intervention or not,” says Daniels. “I certainly think there is some divine intervention here.”
The occupant of the house, who was later identified as Brent Brown, told officers he was home alone. He refused their request to search the home, but police reached out to a relative who owned the house but was not in the area, who gave them permission to enter.
Officers found Allen in a coal storage area. She was completely covered in coal.
According to the affidavit, Allen told police that she had been assaulted. She said Brown had threatened her, saying that if she left or “told anyone about him he would come after her family and sister.”
She said he denied her access to her phone, but on the morning of Dec. 14, “Brown allowed her enough time to send a text message from her phone” to her parents.
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At a press conference on Sunday, Allen’s father, Jonathan Allen, said he and his wife “dropped to our knees” when they learned their daughter had been found.
“We are so excited to have our Maddie home,” her mother, Tanya Allen, said. “We love her so much. And she has been such a light and a joy in our lives. We are so grateful that we can continue our lives together with her. And it took the effort of so many and we’re so grateful. And we love you. We pray for our sweet Maddie as she moves forward that she can find hope and happiness and joy in her future.”
“She is alive because of law enforcement,” Daniels says. “She certainly was in danger.”
“We are continuing the investigation and we will go where the evidence will lead us,” he says. “We are also investigating if there are other victims out there.”
Brown, 39, was taken into custody Saturday on suspicion of obstruction of justice and another crime, Daniels says. He has not yet been formally charged and he has not entered a plea.
source: people.com
