Inset: Ricardo Trujillo Rojel (Utah). Background: Hobble Creek Canyon, where authorities found him and his missing children (KUTV).
According to Utah authorities, the search for two young children ended with a tipster spotting them with the man who allegedly killed their mother: the kids’ own father.
Ricardo Trujillo Rojel, 30, is currently in the Weber County Jail for aggravated murder and aggravated arson.
State authorities in Utah had put out an Amber Alert for Rojel’s two children, a 2- and 3-year-old. Dispatchers got reports of a fire at a trailer in the Riverdale Manufactured Home Community in the city of Riverdale on Monday at about 2:46 p.m., according to NBC Salt Lake City affiliate KSL.
A responding officer arrived to find the front door ajar.
“The trailer was filled with smoke, and the responding officer saw a female laying on the ground near the doorway,” police wrote in an affidavit. “The female victim had severe burn marks on her body.”
Cops noted a puncture wound to her neck, apparently from a sharp object, and concluded the death was a homicide.
Investigators claim it was Trujillo who killed her and set fire to the home. The search ended that evening with a tipster calling in at 7:30 p.m. about seeing a white Ford F150 apparently disabled a quarter-mile up the left fork of Hobble Creek Canyon, according to the Utah County Sheriff’s Office.
“The vehicle matched the description of the suspect vehicle in an Amber Alert from earlier on Monday, 03/24/25,” deputies wrote. “An adult male and two children were seen walking away from the truck heading up the Left Fork of Hobble Creek Canyon.”
A license plate reader reportedly also noted the vehicle in the area.
Deputies said they arrived, saved the children, and arrested Trujillo, although according to KSL, he allegedly assaulted one of the law enforcement officers. Authorities gave the kids to the Utah Division of Child and Family Services.
Trujillo’s prior criminal history reportedly included strangling a woman who was pregnant with his child. Originally charged with aggravated assault and aggravated kidnapping, he ultimately received probation under a suspended jail sentence of 180 days for misdemeanor assault. In an ongoing domestic assault case from January 2025, he allegedly broke into a residence with the help of his sister, and he wrecked the place, tearing pictures from the wall and scattering other items, according to KSL.
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