Riverdale man arrested after Amber Alert accused of aggravated murder
A man at the center of a Monday Amber Alert was arrested for investigation of aggravated murder and aggravated arson in the death of the mother of his two children.
Ricardo Trujillo Rojel, 29, is accused of killing the woman whose body was found inside a burning trailer at the Riverdale Manufactured Home Community, 1050 W. 5100 South.
Dispatchers received reports of a trailer on fire at 2:46 p.m. Monday. A responding police officer found the front door of the trailer ajar. "The trailer was filled with smoke, and the responding officer saw a female laying on the ground near the doorway. The female victim had severe burn marks on her body," according to a police booking affidavit.
When the officer pulled her body out of the burning trailer and onto the porch, "he observed a puncture wound to her neck which appeared to be from a sharp object and it was determined the death was a homicide," the affidavit states.
Investigators at the scene "found the fire was caused by an accelerant and a gas can was located inside of the trailer," according to the affidavit. Police also reported finding a pair of blue jeans with blood on them.
An Amber Alert was issued at 5:15 p.m., saying the woman's two young children, ages 2 and 3, were believed to have been abducted by their father, Trujillo, and were in danger.
Trujillo's truck was seen on a license plate reader in Spanish Fork at 3:12 p.m., the affidavit says, and a citizen later reported the F-150 truck parked up Springville Canyon where they "observed a male walking with two young children." Blood was found inside his truck, according to police.
Trujillo was taken into custody, and police say he "resisted arrest and assaulted an officer," then "continued to physically resist deputies at Weber County Jail" and was "uncooperative with CSI and a blood technician when he was served with warrants," according to the arrest report.
The children were safe and were placed with family members.
Neighbors told police that Trujillo and the woman were moving out of the trailer on Monday, and one neighbor saw the couple on the porch in the morning. "Another neighbor stated she heard a female scream sometime before officers arrived at the structure fire," the affidavit states.
The victim and her mother, who lives in the same trailer park, went to the bank at around noon and "while at the bank (Trujillo) called the victim and told her to come back home. The victim's mother stated that the victim drove back home after the phone call with Ricardo. The mother did not speak to the victim again," the affidavit says.
It is unclear what Trujillo was doing hiking with the children in Spanish Fork, but police say he had turned his phone off and went to an area "over an hour away from home when he was supposed to be moving to Roy with the victim," according to the affidavit.
Trujillo was sentenced to 180 days in prison in 2021 for an assault conviction related to choking and punching his girlfriend who was pregnant, according to court documents.
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