LOGAN — A 69-year-old Hyrum man was arrested Tuesday after an 8-year-old girl thwarted an attempted kidnapping at a local park by asking him for her family’s safety code, according to court documents.
Dean Rune Duncan was booked into the Cache County Jail on a first-degree felony charge of attempted child kidnapping following an investigation by the Cache County Sheriff’s Office, according to an affidavit of probable cause.
Deputies responded on Aug. 24 to a report of an incident at Blacksmith Fork Park in Hyrum. A mother told law enforcement that her 8-year-old daughter was at the park when a man drove up in a gold Honda CR-V, approached the girl, and claimed her mother had sent him to pick her up.
The child asked the man for her family’s safety code. When he replied that he did not remember it, the girl told him she was going to call the police before leaving the area to notify her mother.
Investigators noted that local residents had posted several warnings on a local Facebook page about an older man in a gold SUV acting suspiciously toward children in the area, including asking where they lived. Photos shared on the page showed the vehicle and its license plate, which deputies used to identify Duncan as the registered owner.
A detective arranged an interview with the child on Sept. 2 at the Cache Children’s Justice Center, where the girl recounted the same details she had shared with her mother.
On Sept. 8, deputies found the gold Honda CR-V parked outside Duncan’s home in Hyrum. After being advised of his Miranda rights, Duncan agreed to speak with an investigator and acknowledged that he was at the park on Aug. 24 and was the driver of the SUV.
Duncan made an initial appearance Friday in Logan’s 1st District Court. He was charged with attempted aggravated child kidnapping, a first-degree felony.
Judge Spencer Walsh assigned Duncan a public defender. He ordered the Hyrum man to remain in jail and appear again in court Sept. 16.
Individuals arrested and charged in complaints are presumed innocent unless or until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in court.