A Utah woman called police to say she had been kidnapped and repeatedly raped in a man's apartment.
Deputy Travis Ricks, Cache County Sheriff's Office He told KSL-TV He said the woman caught his eye while he was driving on Highway 89 on Sept. 11.
Mr Ricks said the woman woke up and struggled to explain what had happened, but there were signs of abuse, including her hair being cut.
“When I spoke to her I could see swelling in her face and it was clear she had been assaulted,” he said. “She seemed a little confused at first. She was quite traumatised.”
The woman told the man that she had asked for a ride home to Salt Lake City after friends locked her out of a Motel 6 in Ogden on September 8. A man offered to give her a ride and she agreed, but he instead took her to his apartment in Logan.
“She alleges that while she was in Ogden, she was abducted and physically and sexually assaulted by a man,” Ricks continued.
She said she was hit with a black flashlight and a towel bar, which police said could have caused “serious injury or death.”
The woman said the man fled when she was giving him a ride to Idaho, and that he fell asleep in the car, so she fled.
Police found the suspect asleep in a moving vehicle on Highway 89. The suspect was arrested without incident.
The man was identified as 46-year-old Christopher Mark Dering. During police interviews, he claimed the woman had already been beaten and was having a psychotic episode in his bathroom when he found her. He also claimed the woman had asked to be dropped off in Idaho before calling an attorney.
The victim later gave police more details, alleging that the suspect offered her methamphetamine and forced her to wear clothes in which he had urinated.
Investigators also found evidence in his apartment that corroborated many of the victim's statements, including a black flashlight, bloodstains and locks of hair.
Dering was arrested on suspicion of forcible sexual intercourse, kidnapping, aggravated assault, possession of a controlled substance and misdemeanor driving with a measurable amount of a controlled substance.
Officer Ricks' interview: News Video Report From KSL's YouTube channel.
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