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Approaching 42 years since Utah toddler was kidnapped & killed

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Approaching 42 years since Utah toddler was kidnapped & killed


SUNSET, Utah — 42 years ago, an incident at a park in Davis County changed a family and community forever.

“It’s been hard,” said Elaine Runyan. “It’s not a journey that I was supposed to take, it’s not how it was supposed to be.”

On August 26, 1982, Elaine’s daughter Rachael Runyan was abducted from a park behind their home in the city of Sunset. She was three years old.

“She was lured across the park to a main roadway at another park, and they said they were going to get the kids ice cream. Rachael said she liked bubblegum ice cream, so he was kind of like, ‘Come follow me,’” recounted Elaine.

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About three weeks after she was kidnapped, Rachael’s body was found on the outskirts of Morgan County. But, even all these years later, we still don’t know how she got there and who killed her. Rachael’s mom made it her mission to advocate for missing children and be a voice for families.

“It changed my whole life. I spent pretty much my whole life trying to find who did this and keeping her story alive,” said Elaine.

Before nationwide AMBER alerts were used to try to find children who had been abducted, they were called Rachael alerts in Utah. The alert was introduced a month before Elizabeth Smart was kidnapped in 2002, so it was used at that time.

“Now when this happens, you get these text alerts, you get these smartphone alerts, it hits the radio and things like that where everybody stops because they get that tone, and they see a vehicle description, they see a child’s name, they see a direction of travel and a license plate. That didn’t exist in 1982,” said Jason Jensen, co-founder of the Utah Cold Case Coalition.

“If the Rachael Runyan case was to happen today, I am 100% convinced that we would have had it solved almost immediately with the technology out there,” said Sunset City Police Chief Brett Jamison.

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Jamison took the case over when he became chief two years ago, and frequently looks through the case files, trying to find something they might have missed. This is still an active investigation.

“There’s not an officer on this department that doesn’t think about little Miss Rachael Runyan daily,” said Chief Jamison. “Every lead we’ve actually come across, we’ve dissected it, and again still, we have no physical evidence that can tie anybody to this particular case.”

The family says they have some ideas about who might be responsible, but they are working with investigators on those tips. They hope bringing this story to the forefront might remind someone of a little detail that could help tie a bow on Rachael’s tragedy.

“I know she’s in heaven and no one can ever hurt her again, and I’ve had to spend a lot of years without her,” Elaine said.





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Utah

Here’s who will lead Utah Valley University as its next president

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Here’s who will lead Utah Valley University as its next president


Jon Anderson will be charged with moving the Orem school forward following the death of conservative commentator Charlie Kirk on campus last year.

(Bethany Baker | The Salt Lake Tribune) Incoming UVU President Jon Anderson poses for a photo with his family after an event announcing his selection at Utah Valley University in Orem on Friday, July 17, 2026.



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Beaver County residents set up thousands of sandbags ahead of flashfloods

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Beaver County residents set up thousands of sandbags ahead of flashfloods


BEAVER COUNTY, Utah — A massive community effort is underway as volunteers and Beaver County crews distribute thousands of sandbags to protect homes from the potential path of floodwaters.

After the Cottonwood Fires, residents have been waiting for weeks for relief to come in the form of rain, though officials now warn it may come all at once with an increased risk of flooding and debris flow.

Emergency Service Director Les Whitney believes that the fire has left plenty of debris to bring trouble for residents.

“We got a lot of water. We’re bringing debris with it, so tree branches, tree limbs, logs, lots of different size firewood, and that’s all in the creeks. We’re worried about that plugging up our bridges and stuff, so we have heavy equipment and excavators located in strategic places so that we can keep those bridges open,” said Whitney.

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An estimated 140 homes and condominiums were spared from the flames, but remain in the paths of floodwaters.

Residents can also pick up sandbags at the Beaver County Sheriff’s Office or at the Beaver County Rodeo Fairgrounds.





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Utah man arrested again for allegedly abusing dog twice in three months

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Utah man arrested again for allegedly abusing dog twice in three months


EAGLE MOUNTAIN — An Eagle Mountain man currently on pretrial release in 4th District Court who is accused of abusing his dog has been arrested again for allegedly punching the same animal.

Keith Reaves Davis, 43, was booked into the Utah County Jail on Wednesday for investigation of aggravated cruelty to an animal.

Utah County sheriff’s deputies were called Wednesday afternoon to a grocery store on a report that a man was beating his dog after it had gotten off its leash and was stopped by a bystander, according to a police booking affidavit.

“I reviewed security camera footage from the grocery store, and an individual matching the description of the suspect was seen holding the dog in the air by one paw and repeatedly striking the dog on the right hind leg area. I observed the male strike the dog several times before dropping the dog from approximately 1-2 feet. The strikes appeared to be as hard as the male could hit,” the arresting deputy wrote in the affidavit. “The dog did not cry out or whimper as if the dog was accustomed to the abuse.”

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When questioned, Davis “admitted to striking the dog because it was not behaving,” the affidavit states.

An animal control officer who responded to the scene to take custody of the dog noted it was the same dog he had taken from Davis exactly three months earlier during another animal abuse investigation.

In that case, Davis was charged in 4th District Court with aggravated cruelty to an animal, a class A misdemeanor; and public intoxication, a class C misdemeanor, after deputies received a tip from a neighbor that a dog was being abused at Davis’ home, according to charging documents. When questioned, Davis “acknowledged hitting his dog as punishment,” the charges state.

Deputies also reviewed videos that the neighbor had filmed. The neighbor told investigators “there was blood from the dog on the ground of the garage and (the neighbor) can hear the dog screaming as if it’s being hurt. Deputies got the videos from the (neighbor) and you can hear very loudly the dog screaming and crying with a lot of loud banging noises. In one of the videos, you can hear the dog sounding like it is being choked by a collar and is grasping for air,” a police booking affidavit states.

Davis’ next court hearing in the April case is scheduled for July 28.

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In their latest booking report, sheriff’s deputies note that they “believe further harm will be inflicted on this dog if it is released back to the male a second time,” and have recommended the dog not be returned to Davis.

The Key Takeaways for this article were generated with the assistance of large language models and reviewed by our editorial team. The article, itself, is solely human-written.



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