Anti-LDS message left in vandalism at five churches

Vandals threw rocks tied with antagonistic notes at five LDS Church meetinghouses overnight Saturday in South Jordan and Riverton.

A single rock was thrown at glass doors at each meetinghouse, said South Jordan police Officer B.J. Smith. Police have no suspects.

Typewritten notes attached to each rock with a black elastic hair-tie reading: "'Stop spreading your lies, pagans,'" Smith said.

The notes were printed on a single sheet of white paper, and the rocks were baseball-to-softball size. The double-paned, tempered glass was broken in only one of the churches. In the others, the rock broke through only the first pane of glass and landed outside the buildings.

They were thrown sometime after the last checks by church members at about 10:30 p.m. The incidents were reported between 6 a.m. and 7:30 a.m. Sunday, when members began arriving for early-morning church activities.

The note may push the investigation into hate-crime territory, depending on whether the vandals intended to "intimidate or terrorize," Smith said.

"It's leaning that way, toward more like a hate crime, but we wouldn't know until we made suspect contact and interviewed them to determine exactly what their intent was," he said.

The police investigation would be conducted in a similar way whether it was a hate crime or not, but if it is found to be a hate crime, a suspect could face enhanced charges, Smith said.

Investigators will likely begin by looking at recent reports of suspicious persons in the area, and asking church members and others about people they know who might have had "angry or hurtful feelings toward the LDS Church," Smith said.

lwhitehurst@sltrib.com