A Utah father has been charged with torturing and abusing his three young children after they were all hospitalized following a doomed canyon hike.
Micah Smith, 31, was arrested on Tuesday, more than a month after he took his kids, aged two, four and eight, on a harrowing trek through the Broads Fork Trail in Big Cottonwood Canyon.
They were reported missing later in the day – and were all found fighting for their lives in the aftermath of an unrelenting storm.
Smith sustained third-degree frostbite. Two of the children were found in critical condition, including the four-year-old boy, who had no pulse when first responders arrived after the 24-hour ordeal.
The four-year-old needed CPR for 25 minutes before his heart started beating again. His body temperature was just 62.6 degrees when he was admitted to the hospital.
The eight-year-old was found in stable condition, but is traumatized by the event that made her fear for her family’s life.
While a since-deleted GoFundMe detailed the ordeal, claiming Smith had ‘bravely sacrificed himself’ to protect his kids by lying on them to keep them warm, investigators say he was the one who had jeopardized their lives in the first place.
Authorities also claimed that Smith’s children had expressed fear leading up to the life-threatening disaster, but he paid no mind to their concerns.
‘This is about the emotional and psychological harm,’ Salt Lake County District Attorney Sim Gill said at a press conference after Smith’s arrest.
Micah Smith, 31, was arrested on Tuesday for allegedly torturing his three children
His four-year-old son is in critical condition and had no pulse when he was found
‘The way that he acted was in a depraved manner that caused emotional harm.’
In arresting documents reviewed by FOX 14, investigators wrote: ‘[Smith’s] intentional and self-act left his children in grave danger, with one of them dying and being revived multiple times, and will never fully recover.’
Smith and his kids left their home at 9am on the morning of the hike and after eight grueling hours, they finally reached the summit – an elevation of roughly 11,330 feet.
Already dark and cold, the air became foggy and it started to rain and hail. Smith allegedly said that by 8pm, they had descended 600 feet from the summit, ABC 4 reported.
But then the toddler slipped and fell – striking his head on the rocks. Smith finally decided the group should find shelter, according to police.
Smith’s alleged retelling of events suggests the child lost consciousness, as he said he performed CPR on the child until he started breathing again.
The allegedly cold-hearted father left his children behind and started going down the mountain alone, according to police.
He also is said to have admitted that he was unfamiliar with the trail, and felt ‘comfortable hiking in the dark’ even though his kids were clearly afraid.
The eight-year-old told investigators that she warned her father about two miles from the summit that they should turn around, but Smith allegedly refused, saying, ‘this is a once-in-a-lifetime thing,’ police claimed.
Smith is pictured with his wife and mother of his children, Samantha, and his two sons
She also said she was ‘worried about not living’ amid the chaos.
Smith allegedly recorded the hike on his phone. In one of the clips, the eight-year-old is heard asking: ‘Are we going to freeze to death, daddy?’
Police said he only harshly responded that they were ‘almost to the top’.
At the press conference, Gill revealed that Smith has an alarming history.
About a month before the incident, Smith had ‘expressed suicidal ideation’ and told an officer he was going to ‘hike up to the top of a mountain’. An axe and two guns were found in his vehicle at the time, but he denied he was going to use them.
On November 10, Smith was banned from entering the hospital where his four-year-old son is being treated because he was allegedly ‘tampering with equipment,’ according to Gill.
Smith was charged with three counts each of child torture and aggravated assault, all first-degree felonies. He remains in police custody without bond.
‘We want to make sure that the children, who are the most vulnerable, are protected,’ Gill said.
‘Given the context and how it unfolded… we believe that [the charges] adequately reflect the analysis by the screening team.’
In the GoFundMe post, which raised more than $60,000 and was removed at some point on Wednesday, the organizer wrote: ‘Micah is a good dad who loves his kids and loves taking them on adventures.
‘Unfortunately, tragedy struck this time around.’
