RIVERDALE, Utah — The man at the focus of an AMBER Alert on Monday has been arrested on charges of aggravated murder and aggravated arson following incidents that led to the death of the mother of his two children.
Ricardo Rojel Trujillo was taken into custody hours after the alert was issued when he drove off with his children after allegedly killing the woman inside a Riverdale home that had been set on fire.
Police said when Trujillo, 29, was later located in Hobble Creek Canyon, he resisted arrest and assaulted an officer.
Authorities originally arrived at the trailer where the woman and her children lived in Riverdale after receiving reports of a structure fire at 2:45 p.m. Officers found the woman inside the trailer with severe burn marks and a puncture wound to her neck, according to the arrest documents.
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"Yesterday, I pulled in, saw all the police cars and sat and watched for a minute until the firetrucks and police cars left, but I couldn’t believe it,” said Dennis Alexander, who lives in the neighborhood.
Police reported the puncture wound appeared to be from a sharp object. Investigators also determined that the fire had been caused by an accelerant, and a gas can was found inside the trailer.
The woman's parents told police that she and Trujillo were moving out of the trailer on Monday. Her mother said she was with her daughter at a bank earlier in the day when Trujillo called her to come back home.
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A next-door neighbor said she heard a woman scream before officers arrived at the trailer fire.
“It’s a reality check," added neighbor Donna Neilson. "It tells me nobody is immune to it. It can happen anywhere, and it did.”
Because the woman's death was immediately ruled suspicious and the children, ages 2 and 3 years old, were missing, the AMBER Alert was issued.
VIDEO BELOW: Riverdale Police Chief Casey Warren discusses the suspicious fire, woman's death & AMBER Alert
Shortly after 8 p.m., police announced the alert was canceled when the children and Trujillo were found after a witness spotted the vehicle and called Springville police. The children were placed in the care of family.
When Trujillo was taken to the Weber County Jail, police said he continued to resist physically and was uncooperative when technicians attempted to draw blood.
Previous court records showed that Trujillo was arrested in January on suspicion of domestic violence in front of the children while under the influence of methamphetamine. During the January incident, Trujillo was accused of breaking a window at the trailer home, damaging picture frames and scattering other household items around the floor.
