CENTERVILLE, Utah – Two suspects have been arrested in Wyoming after an alleged kidnapping and assault targeting a Centerville mom and her four daughters, and now the victim is speaking up.
The word of the arrests came as a huge relief to this mother of four teenage girls, all of whom faced a terrifying situation after being lured to a home by the men, who then tied them up and threatened them.
For safety reasons, the mother did not want to be identified. She said she was friends with the younger suspect, Dereck James or "DJ" Harrison, so much so that she considered him family. Until he pulled a gun on her and her four daughters.
“Nervous, very stressed,” the woman said while sitting in her living room surrounded by her daughters.
She said she was afraid that the men might decide to come back and finish the job.
“'Let’s get rid of witnesses, heck, we’re already looking at this much time,’” she said of what she worried the Harrisons might have been thinking.
The woman said her friend DJ invited her over for a barbecue last Tuesday night, but she wanted to bring her four daughters along. But when they arrived, there wasn’t any food, just the pair of suspects and a gun.
“I looked into his eyes, and his eyes were just so black and dark and... empty,” she said.
The victim said the two men told the girls to get on their knees and secured their hands behind their back using zip ties. She says the men talked about needing facts and finances.
“So as soon as he tried to put that bag over my head... I popped up and I looked at him straight in his face and I said 'I’m not going to just go blind while you do whatever you want with my kids,’” she recalls.
The woman said things turned for the better quickly, within just a minute. She said her four daughters worked together to break free and escape to safety, but she wonders what would have happened if she had gone there alone.
“When I look down that road, I really do look at death, and that just scares me,” she said.
In the aftermath of the attack, mom admits she has a tough time moving on.
“I haven’t been out much," she said. "It’s just like, every man you look at seems to look like his face, because he was angry, so angry that night.”
Flint Harrison surrendered to police overnight Friday or early Saturday morning, and a multi-agency manhunt was launched in Pinedale, Wyoming for DJ, as the pair had been camping in that area. DJ surrendered late Saturday night.
Both men await extradition to Utah to face charges for the alleged kidnapping and assault.
