A Utah woman flagged down a police officer and claimed she had been raped numerous times in a man’s apartment after being kidnapped.
Cache County Sherriff’s Office deputy Travis Ricks told KSL-TV that the woman caught his attention on Sept. 11 as he was driving on Highway 89.
Ricks said the woman had trouble staying awake and explaining what happened but that she had signs of abuse, including her hair being cut.
“When speaking with her, you could see some swelling on her face and that she, you could tell she had been in an assault,” he said. “She was a little, not making complete sense at first. You could tell she was pretty traumatized.”
The woman told him that she had sought a ride back to her home in Salt Lake City after her friends locked her out of their room at a Motel 6 in the city of Ogden on Sept. 8. A man had offered her a ride and she agreed, but he instead took her to his apartment in Logan.
“She told me that she had been in Ogden, claimed to have been kidnapped by a male, and the male had assaulted her both physically and sexually,” Ricks continued.
She said she was hit with a black flashlight and a towel bar, which police said could have caused “serious bodily injury or death.”
The woman said she escaped as the man was driving her to drop her off in Idaho. She ran off when he fell asleep in the car.
Police found the suspect sleeping in a running car on Highway 89. He was arrested without incident.
The man was identified as 46-year-old Christopher Mark Derring. In an interview with police, he claimed that the woman had already been beaten when he found her and that she had gone through a psychotic episode in his bathroom. He also claimed she asked to be dropped off in Idaho before he asked for attorney.
The victim went into much further detail later with police, saying that the suspect offered her methamphetamine and accusing him of forcing her to wear clothing he had urinated on.
They also found evidence at his apartment that corroborated much of the story given to them by the victim, including a black flashlight, blood evidence, and clumps of hair.
Derring was booked on suspicion of forcible sodomy, kidnapping, aggravated assault, possession of a controlled substance, and a misdemeanor charge of driving with a measurable controlled substance.
The interview with officer Ricks can be watched on the news video report from KSL on its YouTube channel.
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