ST. GEORGE — A couple was arrested over the holiday weekend after officers responded to a report of an unattended toddler in the middle of St. George Boulevard early Monday morning.
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The arrests were set in motion shortly before 6 a.m. when emergency dispatch received a report of a small child reportedly “wandering on St. George Boulevard,” the officer noted in the probable cause statement filed in support of the arrest.
The 911 caller told emergency dispatch the toddler appeared to be about 3 years old and was walking in the middle of one of the travel lanes.
Responding officers located the youngster and then began to scour the area in search of the child’s parents – efforts that would continue for more than an hour, the report states, until the child’s father, 32-year-old Sean Douglas Abel Skougard, was located by police.
St. George Police Officer Tiffany Mitchell told St. George News officers contacted the Division of Children and Family Services after the child was found wandering alone on St. George Boulevard, and a social worker responded to arrange for temporary care and custody of the youngster.
Mitchell also said the child welfare agency is contacted whenever there is a situation in which a child is found unattended, which is standard under Utah’s reporting requirements.
Meanwhile, Skougard told officers that he and his wife were staying at a motel on St. George Boulevard and shortly thereafter, officers located the youngster’s mother who was staying in the motel.
The child’s mother, 25-year-old Nikita Marie Furrow, told officers she was waiting for her husband to return to the hotel, and according to authorities, the mother did not immediately mention that her child was missing while speaking to police.
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The report said earlier that morning, emergency dispatch received a call reporting a verbal altercation involving the child’s parents, who were “fighting all night,” a detail that Furrow confirmed during an interview with police.
Inside the motel room officers found a bottle of lighter fluid sitting in the sink in the bathroom with the lid removed, as well as a backpack that was located near the toilet, which officers noted was an area “that was easily accessible to the child.”
Inside a backpack officers recovered more than 4 ounces of a white crystalline substance consistent with methamphetamine that was packaged in seven separate plastic baggies. Officers also located identifying documents belonging to both Furrow and Skougard, along with a Social Security card belonging to another individual.
Authorities also found a bag containing suspected marijuana and a small tab of what appeared to be LSD, which is a hallucinogen, along with a scale, various pipes and other paraphernalia that were collected from the room.
Furrow later was booked into and faces second-degree felony possession with intent to distribute a controlled substance, as well as a third-degree felony count of reckless endangerment. She also faces four misdemeanor charges, including one count each of marijuana, a controlled substance, another’s identifying documents and possession of paraphernalia.
Skougard was arrested and also charged with second-degree felony possession with intent to distribute a controlled substance, as well as a third-degree felony count of possession of a controlled substance and child endangerment. He also faces misdemeanor charges for possession of marijuana and of paraphernalia.
Both suspects were booked into jail shortly before 7:30 a.m. on Monday, Furrow was released later that same day and Skougard remains in custody on $5,000 bail.
The Washington County Attorney’s Office filed formal charges on Tuesday.
This report is based on statements from court records, police or other responders and may not contain the full scope of findings. Persons arrested or charged are presumed innocent until found guilty in a court of law or as otherwise decided by a trier-of-fact.
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