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West Jordan • In the early morning hours of Nov. 4, Aaron Edson awoke suddenly at his Sandy home and heard his 5-year-old stepdaughter's voice. She was talking quietly, in a polite tone.
Edson testified Wednesday at a preliminary hearing that he didn't feel "extreme alarm" when he heard the child's voice, until his wife realized she couldn't hear Lainey's distinctive footsteps. Then, the couple heard a screen door open. Edson said his stepdaughter, who is disabled, cannot open the door.
That's when he began to panic, and ran outside.
"When I got to the end of the driveway was when I first saw that she was not alone," Edson testified. "That she was in [Troy] Morley's arms."
Morley, 48, of Roy, is charged is accused of snatching the sleeping girl from the Edson home at 10600 S. Rembrant Lane (90 East), after entering through an unlocked door. He is charged in 3rd District Court with first-degree felony child kidnapping, second-degree felony burglary, class A misdemeanor criminal trespassing in a dwelling and class B misdemeanor interference with an arresting officer.
After hearing testimony from Edson and several witnesses, Judge Bruce Lubeck ruled that there was probable cause for Morley to stand trial on the charges. The defendant will be in court again on Feb. 2 for an arraignment hearing.
Edson said that when he first encountered the strange man — dressed in just a sleeveless shirt and shorts on a cold morning — his first words were, "Excuse me."
"I was at a loss for words," Edson testified. "I was upset that someone was holding her."
Edson testified that Morley then told him, "I'm in trouble. They're after me. They're going to kill me unless they have her with me."
Edson said he felt a calm come over him, and he told Morley, "I want to help you but you can't take her with you."
He then grabbed Lainey — who was dressed in pajamas and holding a story book — from Morley's arms.
"[Morley] said, 'I need to get to a church. If anything happens to me, call the FBI,'" Edson recalled.
After the Edsons called police, officers set up a search perimeter and bloodhounds led officers to the home of a woman who lived several blocks away — which Morley had entered through a dog door.
"I saw him there, huddled in a corner," homeowner Tina Olsen testified. "I had no idea who he was. I screamed and I just literally flew up the top of the stairs."
Olsen recalled that before she ran upstairs, the stranger asked her, "Am I bad?" or "Am I in trouble?"
Morley ran from the home, but police spotted him in a neighbor's yard, and he was arrested with the help of a police dog, which bit him several times.
Sandy Police Detective Robert Webb testified on Wednesday that he interviewed Morley after his arrest while he was hospitalized for the dog bite. He said the man told him he was traveling from Wells, Nev., to his home in Roy when he became tired and rented a motel room in Sandy.
Somehow, he ended up in the Edsons' neighborhood and began knocking on several front doors before finding the Edsons' home with a "door ajar."
He allegedly admitted going into the home and asking the girl to come with him, and telling the child that "he needed help and someone was going to shoot him."
Morley's father, Gary Stokes, said after the hearing that someone at the motel room gave his son drugs. He said Morley doesn't remember the events of that November day at all.
"That isn't his character," Stokes said. "That isn't him at all."
Morley has been held at the Salt Lake County jail in lieu of $2 million bail.
After the hearing, Aaron and Stephanie Edson said they are grateful to be getting closer to closure in the case.
"Most people don't get their kids back," Stephanie Edson said tearfully. "So we're very, very grateful for that, and we're grateful for the opportunity to move forward."
The Edsons said they still aren't sure how a stranger got into their home that morning. They said it was "untrue" that their front door was ajar, and said both their front door and a sliding kitchen door were locked.
They said their daughter is doing well after the incident.
"It's hard," Aaron Edson said. "Because just about every couple of days or so, new things come up and consequences from the events that just make her life a little harder than it should be."
Twitter: @jm_miller