A 28-year-old California man is facing felony charges after police say he drove a 15-year-old West Jordan girl into the Nevada desert, a trip that ended only after her father tracked her phone and found the pair inside the man's vehicle. Danilo Miguel Ajqui Suy was arrested and booked into jail following the alleged abduction, according to investigators.
According to KUTV, Ajqui Suy allegedly responded to the girl's social media post, then drove from California to Utah specifically to pick her up, according to court documents cited in the report. Police told the station he told the girl he planned to take her to get food, and the teen left her home without her parents' permission. He reportedly drove her about an hour and a half before continuing on toward Nevada, per the same report.
It was the girl's father who ultimately intervened. KUTV reports that he tracked her location to Nevada and found his daughter and Ajqui Suy together inside the vehicle in a desert area, bringing the alleged abduction to an end before it could go any further.
Explicit Material and Multiple Felony Counts
Police say Ajqui Suy also sent sexually explicit GIFs to the girl, the station's report notes. That conduct has resulted in additional charges beyond the kidnapping allegation itself: he faces a first-degree felony charge of criminal solicitation of child kidnapping, along with two third-degree felony counts of criminal solicitation and distribution of material harmful to a minor.
Under Utah Code § 76-5-301.1, child kidnapping itself is a first-degree felony carrying a mandatory sentence of 15 years to life, though a judge may reduce that minimum to 10, 6, or 3 years if specific mitigating factors are recorded. Criminal solicitation to commit child kidnapping, charged under Utah Code § 76-4-102 and § 76-4-203, is also prosecuted as a first-degree felony and carries an indeterminate term of at least three years up to life. Separately, distributing material harmful to a minor is classified as a third-degree felony under Utah Code § 76-10-1206 when explicit digital material is knowingly sent to a minor.
Interstate Travel Raises Jurisdictional Questions
Because the girl was allegedly transported from Utah into Nevada, the case meets the statutory criteria for federal involvement. Under the Federal Kidnapping Act, 18 U.S.C. § 1201, transporting an abducted victim across state lines gives federal authorities like the FBI concurrent jurisdiction, with potential federal penalties reaching life imprisonment. Salt Lake County prosecutors currently hold local primary jurisdiction over the case, and it remains unclear whether federal charges will ultimately be filed.
Ajqui Suy was booked into Salt Lake County Jail in South Salt Lake, where West Jordan police typically route felony arrests for prosecution by the Salt Lake County District Attorney's Office. Utah Code § 77-20-1 allows judges to hold suspects accused of violent felonies or child-related offenses without bail when evidence suggests a flight risk or danger to the victim or public, though it is not clear from available reporting what bail status has been set in this case.
Registry Requirements and a Familiar Local Pattern
If convicted of child kidnapping under Section 76-5-301.1, Ajqui Suy would be required to register on Utah's public Sex Offender and Kidnap Offender Registry, typically for a minimum of 10 years up to life, under Utah Code § 77-41-105. West Jordan has seen this kind of case before: in a 2015 incident, a man was sentenced to six years to life in prison after pleading guilty to child kidnapping when a father intervened during an attempted abduction of his daughter, according to the Idaho State Journal.
This case also fits into a troubling national trend. Data from the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children showed that CyberTipline reports of online enticement reached 1.4 million in 2025, a 158% increase over 2024, driven in part by expanded federal mandatory reporting rules for online service providers. That surge underscores how quickly a social media contact can escalate into a physical encounter, as investigators allege happened here.
Hoodline has covered several similar cases across Utah this year, including a West Jordan Lyft kidnap attempt in which a 15-year-old girl escaped an attempted abduction in broad daylight. Open questions in this latest case include whether federal prosecutors will pursue their own charges, the suspect's current bail status, and whether additional digital evidence or victims emerge as investigators continue their forensic examination.
