Utah
Utah mother charged in connection with toddler’s 2019 death
SANTAQUIN — A mother is accused of leaving her young child in a hot car in 2019, resulting in the toddler’s death.
Amy Kay Bethers, 29, was charged Thursday in 4th District Court with child abuse homicide, a first-degree felony.
On Aug. 13, 2019, about 5:45 p.m., Bethers brought her 6-month-old son – identified in court documents only as W.T. – to Mountain View Hospital. An obituary identifies the toddler as Wade Ron Taylor.
The boy’s “jaw was locked tight in the onset of rigor mortis, he was warm to the touch, he had sloughing of the skin on his scalp, face, ear and chest, his skin was discolored and mottled, and (his) eyes were open with dryness over the cornea and fixated pupils,” according to charging documents. The toddler’s body temperature was recorded at 109.8 degrees Fahrenheit and he was pronounced deceased about 6:15 p.m.
Doctors “believed that W.T.’s death was probably related to being in a hot environment for too long,” the charges state.
Bethers told police she was driving with her child to a storage unit in Santaquin “when she noticed W.T. was not as ‘wiggly and chattery’ as usual, so she ‘rolled down the windows some more’ and turned around to go home,” according to the charges.
Bethers told police she noticed he was “getting discolored” and his lips turning purple, “and he started ‘getting stiff’ and drooling,” the charges state.
She told investigators that she had been driving for two to three hours and her vehicle did not have air conditioning. Temperatures that day reached about 93 degrees Fahrenheit.
W.T.’s “immediate cause of death was hyperthermia,” but the manner “‘could not be determined’ because her findings from the autopsy were not consistent with Bether’s accounting of events,” according to the charges.
A doctor later concluded “that under conditions where both windows were up and the vehicle was traveling 25 mph, W.T.’s temperature could reach 109.8 degrees in 50-70 minutes; under conditions where both windows were up and the vehicle was traveling 45 mph, W.T.’s temperature could reach 109.8 degrees in 70-150 minutes; under conditions where both windows were up and the vehicle was traveling 65 mph, there would be little to no change in W.T.’s temperature during anytime of the day. (The doctor) concluded that under conditions where the vehicle was parked in the sun and both windows were closed, W.T.’s temperature could reach 109.8 degrees in 40-50 minutes; under conditions where the vehicle was parked in the shade and both windows were closed, there would be no change in W.T.’s temperature,” the charges state.
Court documents do not explain why it took several years to follow up on the charges.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.”
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.
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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