Utah hiker rescued with children faces abuse and torture charges
A Utah man who was rescued with his three children, ages 2, 4 and 8, after a cold and treacherous hike through mountainous terrain last month faces child abuse charges over forcing them to endure the ordeal, authorities said.
The man, Micah Smith, 31, was indicted on three counts of child torture and three counts of aggravated child abuse, the Salt Lake County sheriff’s office said in a news release Wednesday. The charges are first-degree felonies.
Smith first made headlines when search-and-rescue crews found him with his 8-year-old daughter, and his two sons, 2 and 4, on Oct. 12, a day after they had been reported as overdue hikers at Big Cottonwood Canyon, according to the sheriff’s office.
The canyon, which offers popular but tough hiking trails, is roughly 15 miles southeast of Salt Lake City.
Initially, some news reports hailed the rescue and the father’s efforts to keep the children alive in unforgiving conditions. There was even a GoFundMe fundraiser, where Smith was said to have suffered frostbite in trying to keep the children safe, The Salt Lake Tribune reported.
Two of the children were in critical condition after they were found, the sheriff’s office said after the rescue, and one was in stable condition. Smith was in fair condition, the statement said.
It was unclear Saturday whether Smith had a lawyer. An online arrest record for him shows that he was taken into custody Tuesday.
District Attorney Sim Gill of Salt Lake City said during a news conference that the children were told to “march on” despite being afraid and that the path Smith took, known as the Broad Fork Trail, was “not an easy hike that you would take a child upon.”
Gill also said that the children discussed climbing over “rocks that were slipping” and having to hold onto vegetation as they were trying to hike.
The district attorney’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment Saturday.
The children were discovered in dismal conditions, local news channel ABC4 reported, citing police.
The 8-year-old girl was found “alongside a boulder with ‘a few sticks stacked against it,’” and the 2-year-old boy was under his 4-year-old brother, who was exposed and unconscious, according to the news report.
The news station also reported that Smith’s daughter can be heard in a video that was found on his phone asking, “Are we going to freeze to death, daddy?”
Local news channel KSL reported that prosecutors said they believed Smith’s behavior was “clearly spiraling,” adding that he had previously “expressed suicidal ideations.”