Police: Man Arrested When Missing Student Found Naked, Covered in Coal

Law enforcement arrested a man connected to the disappearance of the Snow College student named Madelyn Allen in Utah.

The 19-year-old had been missing since Monday and was last seen exiting her college dorm room in Sanpete County’s Ephraim at approximately 9:22 p.m., the Salt Lake Tribune reported Sunday.

Officials said they located Allen Saturday in Wayne County at the home of a 39-year-old man.

Officials held the man on suspicion of obstruction of justice, aggravated kidnapping, rape, and object rape, a probable cause affidavit filed in Manti’s 6th District court reportedly said.

However, the individual had apparently not been formally charged with any crimes, the Tribune article said.

“We don’t have a lot of information about him,” Snow College Police Chief Derek Walk explained during a Sunday press conference. “We met him for the first time last night. We don’t know how extensive his relationship or her knowledge of him is thus far.”

He added the investigation was ongoing.

The chief identified the person in custody as Brent Brown, a 39-year-old male from Utah.

The Tribune report continued:

According to the affidavit, Allen met the man in an online “chat group” and arranged to have him pick her up Dec. 13. Snow College security footage showed Allen leaving her dorm Monday night, wearing a white fleece jacket and a dark skirt and carrying a plastic bag. Allen’s roommates at the central Utah school reported her missing when she did not return home the next day. During the days that followed, according to court documents, the relationship between Allen and the man became nonconsensual and violent.

The man reportedly took the young woman’s phone, and allowed her to text her family one time on December 14, according to court documents.

The affidavit alleged he tied her up while he went to work, threw her phone away after learning officials were looking for her, took her wallet and also “threatened her, saying if she left or told anyone about him, he would come after her family and sister.”

Meanwhile, local, state, and federal law enforcement joined the search over the several day period.

Authorities used cellphone tower information to locate Allen in Loa, the court documents explained.

Officials began searching through the town of approximately 500 residents, and when police neared a house on Main Street, spotted an individual with light-colored hair and slight build in the basement, the documents said.

“A man — standing about 6-foot-2 and 250 pounds — answered the door and told police he was alone in the house, according to the documents. Police later searched the home and found Allen in a basement coal room, naked, covered in coal, the documents state,” the Tribune report added.

Saturday evening, the school and the young woman’s family said she had been found alive:

“We got the phone call and [the police chief] said, ‘I have her.’ We dropped to our knees,” her father, Jonathan, recalled. “We were so grateful, elated. We couldn’t describe the feelings that we had as we embraced each other.”

Meanwhile, Snow College President Bradley Cook warned young people regarding interactions online with others.

“You need to be careful. … We just have to be ever vigilant about those kinds of interactions,” he said.