NATALIE ANDREWS - Daily Herald | Posted: Thursday, January 18, 2007 11:00 pm
A caregiver is whacked on the head with a frying pan, bound with electrical cords and her mouth stuffed with a sock. A pregnant teenager is upstairs, also bound with electrical cords with a sock in her mouth, and three pregnant teenagers are on the run in a stolen van.
No, it's not a selection from this year's Sundance Film Festival. It's what police say happened at an American Fork group home for pregnant teenage girls -- New Hope Maternity Home -- on Tuesday.
The three pregnant girls -- two are 15 years old, the third is 16 -- are still missing, and still in the stolen vehicle, police say. They were from California, Illinois and Texas.
American Fork police Sgt. Shauna Greening said the attack was a total surprise to the caretaker.
"There wasn't any type of confrontation prior or anything, the caretaker was surprised that this happened," Greening said. "She didn't have any kind of indication that it would resort to something like this."
Police said after assaulting and tying up the caretaker, the girls went upstairs and used electrical cords and tape to tie up a pregnant 17-year-old living in the home. Greening was unaware if the girl's baby was injured in the assault.
After tying up the people in the home, Greening said the girls took off with the caretaker's credit cards, check book and cell phone -- in the caretaker's 2005 silver Dodge Caravan.
Police believe they probably left the state. Greening said an attempt-to-locate alert was issued to police nationwide for the vehicle. The girls haven't contacted their parents.
"It's still currently an investigation," Greening said. "Detectives are following any leads and checking credit cards."
Greening said the caretaker was able to maneuver and loose the cords that were around her. After she escaped, she untied the 17-year-old. Then they called police. Greening said that they were shocked but uninjured.
Greening said she does not know if the three girls have had problems with the law in the past.
Greening said the home, at 1082 N. 370 East in American Fork, has been a care facility for pregnant teenagers for three years.
"We've never had any previous problems," Greening said, noting that the home has been licensed through the city and state.
Calls to New Hope were unanswered Thursday. Its Web site describes the home as a spacious place on 30 acres for up to eight pregnant teenage girls to make "significant modifications" to their lives away from friends. They take high school and prenatal classes at the home.
According to The Associated Press, the owner, Spencer Moody, tearfully told a Salt Lake City TV station that he would close the rural home. He said about two dozen girls had given birth after living at New Hope.
"We've had a lot of parents call and thank us for giving their girls back," Moody told KTVX-TV.
New Hope is among a handful of maternity homes licensed by the Utah Division of Child and Family Services, spokeswoman Carol Sisco told the AP.
Natalie Andrews can be reached at 344-2548 or nandrews@heraldextra.com.
If anyone has seen the 2005 silver Dodge Caravan, license plate 128 VTX, call American Fork police at 763-3020.
This story appeared in The Daily Herald on page A1.