A father who subjected his children to ’emotional and psychological harm’ during a gruelling hike has been arrested and charged with torture and abuse.
Micah Smith, 31, took his three children, aged two, four and eight, on a hike through the Broads Fork Trail in Big Cottonwood Canyon, Utah.
After eight hours of hiking, they reached the summit at 11,330 feet, but then disappeared, only to be declared missing afterwards.
They were found the next day, suffering from severe frostbite and almost dead after it rained and began to hail. The two-year-old fell and hit his head on nearby rocks during the ordeal.
Shockingly, a GoFundMe was set up after the ordeal, in which it was claimed Smith tried to sacrifice himself by lying on the children to keep them warm. Police say it was his fault to begin with.
Two of the children were left fighting for their lives in critical condition, including the four-year-old boy, who had no pulse when he was found.
The four-year-old needed CPR for 25 minutes before he was resuscitated, but his body was a freezing 62.6 degrees.
The eight-year-old girl was found in a stable condition but left fearing for her family’s life.
Smith initially told police that when his toddler lost consciousness, he performed CPR. Police say he then began descending the mountain alone.
In a clip found on the father’s phone, his eight-year-old daughter was heard asking, ‘Are we going to freeze to death, Daddy?’
He ignored her and replied that the group were ‘almost to the top’.
Police have since revealed that Smith’s children had shared fears about the hike before going, which their father ignored.
‘This is about the emotional and psychological harm,’ the Salt Lake City District Attorney said. ‘The way that he acted was in a depraved manner that caused emotional harm.’
In documents seen by local news station FOX 14, officers wrote that the children will ‘never fully recover’.
In the aftermath, Smith was banned from going to the hospital to see his son in critical condition because he was ‘tampering with equipment’, police said.
He’s been charged with three counts of child torture and three counts of aggravated assault. He’s in custody without bond.
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