Missing College Student Found Alive, Covered In Coal In Basement Of Suspected Kidnapper’s Home
At least she's safe now.
Snow College Police Department A 19-year-old college student was located in the coal room of a man’s home five days after she went missing.
Madelyn Allen has been found alive after she was last seen leaving her dorm at Snow College in Ephraim in central Utah at around 9.22pm on December 13.
Her family has celebrated her safe return home but the investigation into her disappearance may only be beginning.
“The ordeal that she has been through is dangerous and traumatic, the details of which we have only begun to understand. She is a fighter. She is now a survivor,” Ms Allen’s uncle Jacob Allen said on Sunday.
Brent Brown is being held on suspicion of kidnapping Madelyn Allen.
After Allen was found south of the city in Wayne County at the home of 39-year-old Brent Brown, he was taken into custody on suspicion of obstruction of justice, aggravated kidnapping, rape, and object rape, according to court documents.
He has not yet been charged with any crime.
Brent Brown and Madelyn Allen allegedly met online.
According to a probable cause affidavit filed on Sunday in the 6th District Court in Manti, Allen first met Brown in a group chat on the messaging app KIK.
Allen reportedly arranged for Brown to pick her up from her dorm on December 13. When she didn’t return home the following day, her roommates reported her missing.
Legal filings state that Allen and Brown’s relationship became violent and nonconsensual over the days that followed.
He allegedly took her phone, only allowing her to text her family to say “I love you” on December 14, which concerned her parents and caused them to contact law enforcement.
Madelyn Allen was allegedly tied up and abused.
Legal filings state that Brown would go out to work and leave Allen tied up. He also allegedly discarded her phone when he learned that law enforcement was searching for her.
The filings also claims that he “threatened her, saying if she left or told anyone about him, he would come after her family and sister.”
Brown allegedly told police that this was all part of a sexual role-play scenario.
However, authorities say Allen was being held against her will and she didn’t leave because she was in fear of what could happen to her family.
Cellphone towers were used to locate Madelyn Allen.
Police were able to narrow their search to Loa, a small town south of Ephraim which is home to just 500 residents.
Upon searching Brown’s home police found Allen’s Snow College ID, a gun in an open suitcase and clothes that appeared to belong to Allen.
Brown was arrested once the ID was discovered.
Legal filings state Allen was found naked in the basement coal storage room covered in coal which Brown again argues was part of a role-play.
Her parents confirmed that she had been found on Saturday.
“We got the phone call and [the police chief] said, ‘I have her.’ We dropped to our knees,” her father Jonathan Allen said. “We were so grateful, elated. We couldn’t describe the feelings that we had as we embraced each other.”
Alice Kelly is a senior news and entertainment editor for YourTango. Based out of Brooklyn, New York, her work covers all things social justice, pop culture, and human interest. Keep up with her Twitter for more.