Utah man accused of holding woman he once dated hostage, beating her

Duchesne County Jail

DUCHESNE — Police arrested a Duchesne man who is accused of holding a woman he once dated hostage and brutally beating her for three or four days.

An officer was called Wednesday to perform a welfare check at a trailer home at 19000 W. 500 South in Duchesne, according to a police affidavit filed in 8th District Court. When the officer arrived, he saw a broken window on the door of the trailer, the report states.

Garren Breach, 60, came out of the trailer and asked the officer to “remove the woman who was inside,” police said. After multiple requests, the woman exited the trailer and the officer noticed “she was moving as if she was in extreme pain,” according to the affidavit.

“When asked about what had happened the victim claimed she had been beaten and that she had attempted to get away,” police said.

When the officer talked to the woman out of hearing distance from Breach, she said she’d been in a past consensual relationship with Breach. But when she got to his trailer, he took her cellphone away, threw it into brush and forced her to remove her clothes so she wouldn’t escape, according to the affidavit.

“He kept her intentionally against her will inside his trailer for multiple days. She attempted to run multiple times, on foot screaming for help attempting to draw attention, at which point the owner would chase her threatening her life by stating he would kill her and that she would not leave with her life and force her to the ground hitting her and shoving dirt into her face. He would then drag her back in a bear hug to his trailer,” police wrote in the affidavit.

During the three or four days the woman was kept in the home, Breach would hit her and threaten to kill her with a rubber mallet, she told police. He also allegedly placed her in handcuffs, gagged her and hit her repeatedly.

When the officer asked to go into the trailer and speak to Breach, Breach allegedly told the officer he had thrown the woman’s phone into the bushes and had taken her clothes. He denied hitting the woman but said “he did bear hug her and detained her,” police wrote.

The officer also found marijuana and a bong in the trailer, the affidavit states.

Breach was booked into Duchesne County Jail for investigation of kidnapping, assault, threat of violence, possession of a controlled substance and drug paraphernalia.

from Deseret News https://ift.tt/2NAHlea