A Utah father is facing child torture and abuse charges after he took his three small children on a long, strenuous hike during a winter storm in Big Cottonwood Canyon and had to be rescued.
Micah Smith, 31, was charged Wednesday with three counts of aggravated child abuse and three counts of child torture, all first-degree felonies which are punishable by up to life in prison if convicted. He is being held without bail in the Salt Lake County jail.
A Salt Lake County sheriff’s deputy wrote in charging documents that Smith was “extremely selfish” when he chose to push his three children — ages 2, 4, and 8 years old — to summit a mountain on Broads Fork Trail in October, rather than protecting them and turning around when storm clouds rolled in.
Instead, the deputy wrote, Smith insisted that they move forward, and allegedly told his oldest daughter that this was a “once-in-a-lifetime thing,” and when she said she was scared, he told her, “You shall not pass.”
That Oct. 11 night, Smith and his children got caught in a downpour of snow, hail and rain. When the family did not return and were reported missing, Salt Lake County’s search and rescue team launched a search, according to the sheriff’s office, in conjunction with helicopters from Intermountain Health’s Life Flight and the Utah Department of Public Safety’s Aero Bureau.
Charging records say Smith and his children took shelter at around 8 p.m. that evening, under a large rock with an overhang. Smith said he gathered “logs, sticks and rocks to make a windscreen,” put pine needles down and tried to use his body to keep his children warm.
His 2-year-old son had fallen and hit his head before they took shelter, and at one point the toddler stopped breathing, Smith allegedly told investigators. Smith said he performed CPR on his two young sons through the night, and at one point taught his older daughter how to do chest compressions so she could help the boys while he left them in the morning to find help.
Rescuers eventually found Smith on the trail and located his children. Charging records allege that rescuers noted that “the children were not wearing much clothing” and that the 2-year-old was lying under the 4-year-old when rescuers found them, and that they were “mostly exposed, unconscious and appeared lifeless.”
All four were hospitalized. Initially after they were found, the sheriff’s office said Smith was in fair condition, one child was stable and two were in critical condition. The four-year-old remains hospitalized as of Wednesday, according to court records.
Smith allegedly admitted to police that he was not prepared, according to the charges, and had not checked the weather before taking his children on the hike. The deputy who wrote the charging document noted that Smith’s wife had texted him urging him to turn around and come home, but he didn’t listen to her or his older daughter, who also said she was scared and wanted to go home.
Investigators later found a video on Smith’s phone where the girl asked, “Are we going to freeze to death, Daddy?”
They later retraced the family’s hike, and the deputy wrote they traveled more than 6.5 miles and had gained 3,160 feet of elevation climbing through shifting rocks and thorny bushes.
Investigators asked a judge to hold Smith in jail without bail, noting that since the rescue, he has been charged with domestic violence and was told to leave Primary Children’s Hospital for trespassing, after “interfering” with his 4-year-old’s care and “tampering with equipment.”
Smith’s “behavior is clearly spiraling,” the deputy wrote. “And he’s not only a danger to himself, but he is a danger to these victims. The defendant’s intentional and selfish act left his children in grave danger, with one of them dying and being revived multiple times, and will never fully recover.”
A judge agreed and ordered that Smith be held without the chance to post bail.
No defense attorney was listed for Smith in court records. On a GoFundMe page started by Zach Smith — who identified himself as Micah Smith’s brother — the brother wrote that Micah Smith “bravely sacrificed himself” to protect his children. The GoFundMe page, which had raised more than $60,000, was taken down sometime on Wednesday.
“Micah is a good dad who loves his kids and loves taking them on adventures,” Zach Smith wrote. “Unfortunately tragedy struck this time around.”