Father leaves 5-year-old outside overnight on college campus

OGDEN, UT (WCMH) – The father of a 5-year-old girl could face charges after he left his daughter outside a building on a college campus all night.

The girl was staying with her father at his parents’ house for the weekend. Police say he left her outside a building on the Ogden-Weber Applied Technology College in the middle of the night. A surveillance camera captured the entire incident.

The girl’s mother said she was traumatized by the event.

“She said she got scared,” the mother told KSTU. “She was yelling ‘Daddy!’ but no one was there.”

Fred Frazier, the security manager for Ogden Weber Applied Technology College, said the girl never moved from where her father left her until security personnel found her around 7:30am. A security guard saw the girl running, and she tripped and fell.

“It was heartbreaking for him,” Frazier said. “To see a little girl running all alone by herself. That’s when he got very concerned, and she was shivering cold.”

The girl’s mother said her daughter was left with nothing but a blanket in 39-degree weather.

“She said she just kind of had her blanket and waited until daylight,” said the mother.

Ogden Police are trying to figure out why the father left the girl and didn’t come back.

“We don’t know really what purpose he’d take the child, if there was a drug-induced psychosis,” said Lt. Tim Scott. “Right now, we’re waiting to interview the father.”

The girl’s mother says the father has caused issues in the past and that a protective order filed on behalf of the little girl was denied by the courts. She isn’t sure why police still haven’t spoken to the father.