Thread: Body found in Utah likely that of missing boy, 4

By Paul Foy, Associated Press Writer 31 mins ago


LAYTON, Utah – The body a missing 4-year-old boy was found Tuesday in a Utah canyon and his mother and stepfather were taken into custody, police said.

Layton police said Ethan Stacy's stepfather, Nathan Sloop, 31, was being charged with aggravated homicide. In addition, Sloop and the boy's mother, Stephanie Sloop, 27, will be charged with felony child abuse, obstruction of justice and desecration of a corpse, police said.

The search for Ethan widened Tuesday after police said the boy's mother reported that he had left his bed the night before and wandered from their apartment complex. Officials said she told them that the boy had walked away five of the last 10 nights.

"That appears to have been a ruse by the mother, something to cover the tracks," said Layton police Lt. Garret Atkin.

By midday Tuesday, police said the couple revealed the location of Ethan's body, and the search shifted 20 miles away to a spot off a wooded trail in Wolf Canyon, which borders the Powder Mountain ski resort. The resort is about 40 miles northeast of Salt Lake City.

It wasn't clear as searchers were digging up remains when Ethan was killed or how, police said Tuesday. Five officers were seen carrying a blue bag out of the woods late Tuesday afternoon.

Atkin refused to describe the condition of the boy's body.

The couple was married only 10 days ago, when Ethan arrived in Utah to spend the summer with his mother, police said. His biological father is in Virginia. His name was not released by police.

Investigators spent the early morning hours Tuesday combing through the Sloops' cupboards and closets, and through Dumpsters and the area near the apartment complex looking for the boy. Sex offenders in the area were interviewed and had their homes searched, Atkin said.

The Sloops' story of a barefoot boy wandering outside in his pajamas changed throughout the day, Atkin said.

A Utah State Courts records check found that Nathan Sloop has a string of criminal convictions for misdemeanor and felony crimes — including criminal mischief, disorderly conduct and drug possession — dating back to 2000.

In 2003, he was convicted of third-degree felony drug possession with the intent to manufacture and given a suspended sentence of up to five years in the Utah State Prison. He served 30 days in the Weber County Jail, along with probation. The charge was later amended to a misdemeanor.

No criminal record was found for Stephanie Sloop.

An after-hours message left for the Davis County attorney's office was not immediately returned Tuesday.

It wasn't clear when charges would be filed or when the Sloops would make a court appearance. An after-hours message left for the Davis County attorney's office was not immediately returned Tuesday.

Nobody answered a phone at the Sloops' apartment late Tuesday, and a message wasn't returned. Neighbors told reporters the couple were newcomers to the complex.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100512/...NsawNwcmludA--



My heart goes out to the boys father ... WTH is wrong with people ??

Utah man beat boy to death, disfigured him
By Paul Foy And Jennifer Dobner, Associated Press Writers 1 hr 1 min ago

SALT LAKE CITY – The Utah man held in the slaying of his 4-year-old stepson beat him for days before the boy died, then used a hammer to disfigure his face and teeth before burying his body in the mountains, according to police records released late Wednesday.

The body of Ethan Stacy, wrapped in plastic, was unearthed by police Tuesday.

Interview summaries filed by Layton police detectives documented increasingly harsh treatment of the boy during his short time in Utah. A Virginia judge had sent the boy to Layton for a summer visit with his mother just 10 days before his death, police said.

Investigators said they obtained photographs and video images of Ethan's worsening condition from his mother's cell phone, starting more than a week ago.

The injuries resulted from the stepfather, Nathanael Sloop, "engaging in a systematic and progressively more violent pattern of abuse toward Ethan," detectives wrote in interview summaries. The documents say Sloop was angry with the child and "tried everything" to discipline him; however, they don't say why the boy was being disciplined.

Sloop, 31, acknowledged hitting the boy, which caused his face to swell, and leaving him in a locked bedroom May 6 while the couple went to get married in Farmington, about 10 miles away, according to the probable cause statements used to support arrest warrants and detention in jail.

Sloop and the boy's mother, Stephanie Sloop, 27, feared his injuries would alert authorities if they took him along to the courthouse wedding, the documents state. "This pattern of behavior and abuse was done in a manner that was recklessly indifferent to the child's welfare," police wrote.

Stephanie Sloop told police she did not seek medical help for Ethan because she was afraid Nathanael Sloop "would harm her," Detective Brooke Plotnick wrote.

The couple told police they found Ethan dead in his bed Sunday morning, and that Nathanael Sloop buried him later that day. Stephanie Sloop told investigators she bought two cans of lighter fluid for Nathanael Sloop to burn the body before it was buried. The reports didn't say whether that was actually done.

The stepfather disfigured the boy's face and teeth "in an effort to defeat or delay identification," detectives concluded in their reports.

Prosecutors said they expect to file charges against the couple Friday. Nathanael Sloop was arrested on suspicion of aggravated murder. He and the mother face additional charges of desecration of a corpse, along with felony child abuse and obstruction of justice, police said.

Chief Deputy Davis County Attorney David Cole said prosecutors are awaiting the results of an autopsy conducted Wednesday.

The Sloops are being held at the Davis County jail.

Attorney Richard Gallegos, who has represented Nathanael Sloop in previous criminal cases, did not return a message Wednesday. It was unknown if Stephanie Sloop had an attorney.

Nobody answered a phone at the Sloops' apartment Wednesday, and a message wasn't returned.

Stephanie Sloop initially told officers that Ethan wandered away from their apartment complex late Monday, but that was just a ruse aimed at covering the couple's tracks, Lt. Garret Atkin said.

Police searched overnight and said that by midday Tuesday, the Sloops had revealed the location of Ethan's body. The search then moved 20 miles away to a spot off a wooded trail in Wolf Canyon, which borders the Powder Mountain ski resort, about 40 miles northeast of Salt Lake City.

Ethan's biological father told The Associated Press police gave him details on the slaying Wednesday. "I can't talk right now. I just got the horrible news, talking to prosecutors," said Joe G. Stacy of Tazewell, Va.

A relative says Ethan didn't want to spend the summer with his mother. "Ethan did not want to even talk to (his mother) on the phone. She'd call and he'd say, 'I don't want to talk to her,'" Freida Stacy, Joe G. Stacy's stepmother, told the Deseret News of Salt Lake City.

Stephanie Sloop told police Ethan was vomiting, lethargic and refusing to eat for three days before his death. She also said that on Friday, she found Ethan badly burned from his feet to his buttocks from hot bath water, and that she suspected Nathanael Sloop was responsible.

At another point, the couple forced the child to drink two 16-ounce bottles of water, a 16-ounce bottle of Kool-Aid and a glass of orange juice over two hours, police said. They also gave him Motrin and Benadryl to ease his facial swelling and pain.

Utah State Courts records show that between 2000 and 2003, Nathanael Sloop had several convictions, including for criminal mischief, disorderly conduct and drug possession. In 2003, he served 30 days in jail for one drug possession charge and received a six-month suspended sentence for another.

No criminal history was found for Stephanie Sloop.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100513/...xpY2V1dGFobWE-

Investigators said they obtained photographs and video images of Ethan's worsening condition from his mother's cell phone,

WTH was she doing ... documenting the abuse ??

Stephanie Sloop told police she did not seek medical help for Ethan because she was afraid Nathanael Sloop "would harm her,"

If any SOB even thought about doing something like this to my child ... they had better never go to sleep or turn their back ....

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I will personally smuggle in hammers to whatever jail this @#$% is sitting in. On second thought, I probably wont' even have to smuggle it in. I'm betting there is no one aside from his defense attorney who would mind if I handed every other inmate a rusty hammer.

I have to believe that justice will be served both here and in the after life, but in this case, that does not bring me an ounce of peace. I really, really, REALLY hope both of these animals suffer hell on earth at the hands of someone equally as sick. The death penalty is way too easy for these creatures.

That poor father. I'm sure the judge feels awful, but I hope they look into why that boy was sent there and if the bio dad did contest it and gave reasons, I hope social services did their job to look into the situation. If not, heads should roll.

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This is sad but it pisses me off more than anything. I see WAY too much court effort being put into parent's rights and not children's rights. This is what happens!

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Sad, Sad story way too close to home!!! I grew up in Layton very quiet nice place. Sad things like this have to happen!!

i feel so sick , i ve seen way to many of these kind of cases lately , i think they should bring back the death penalty in every state , and then fry the hell out of anyone who does this kind of thing ,

that poor child had no chance with a mother like that..... and sigh you know they are going to get time and get out to do it again,,,,,,,,

If you can stomach reading them this is actual court docs detailing most of the events.

http://www.fox13now.com/media/acroba...5/53729187.pdf

http://www.fox13now.com/media/acroba...5/53729228.pdf

The one thing boggling my mind is if this little boy didn't even want to talk to his mom then why on earth would the dad send him for a visit. Even with a court order if the child doesn't want contact with the parent you can not force it upon them. My step kids go through this with their bio mom all the time. This includes visits, phone calls, counseling appts., etc.

Hundreds march in Utah to honor slain 4-year-old
2 hrs 42 mins ago

LAYTON, Utah – Hundreds of Utahns gathered for a 10-mile walk to honor a 4-year-old Virginia boy whose badly beaten body was dug up from a Utah mountainside grave nearly two weeks ago.

Ethan Stacy's mother and stepfather are being held in the case, and prosecutors have said the couple will likely be charged with aggravated murder in the boy's death.

Authorities have alleged that the stepfather, Nathan Sloop, beat the boy for days, then used a hammer to disfigure his face and teeth before burying his body.

On Saturday, about 400 people marched the 10.3-mile route from the Sloop's Layton apartment complex to the Davis County Justice Center — a gesture organizers say was intended as a symbolic call for justice for a child most here had never met.

"This is all too little and way too late, but maybe this is the bit of good that can be had from this whole sorry mess," said Calvin Cain, a father of three who strode purposefully near the middle of the pack.

"It's the kind of thing you can't make sense of, and you don't want to, because you don't want to believe anyone could do something like that to a child," he said.

Ethan, who had been in Utah for a summer visit with his mother, was buried Wednesday near his father's home in Richlands, Va.

Prosecutors have been waiting for an official cause of death to be determined by the medical examiner, but are expected to file charges on Friday.

They have alleged that Sloop beat Ethan until he was unconscious, failed to get the boy medical help and then used a hammer on the child's face before burying him so that it would be more difficult to identify the body.

The boy's mother, Stephanie Sloop, initially told police her son had wandered from home. She later said she failed to seek help for Ethan because she feared her new husband would hurt her.

For Tara Cooper, Saturday's walk was a reminder of the abuse she herself once lived with.

A boyfriend who showed no hint of violence shook Cooper's daughter so fiercely when she was 15-months-old that the infant suffered severe brain injuries. Now 13, Cooper said her daughter has mental capacity of a 5-year-old and will never live independently.

"But she is in every way our angel," Cooper said. "So is Ethan, he's just not here anymore. But he won't be forgotten, and we hope this just reminds people that justice must be served on his behalf. We must not forget."

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Information from: Deseret News, http://www.deseretnews.com

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