Amber Alert canceled, 13-year-old Utah boy found safe; suspect in custody
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Pat Reavy, KSL.com
LAYTON, Utah (KSL.com) — An Amber Alert for a 13-year-old boy out of Layton was canceled early Wednesday after he was found safe in Nebraska. The suspect was taken into custody.
According to police, Evan McConney was communicating with an adult on the internet and left his home late Monday night to meet with him. Police said the suspect was Aaron Zemen, 26, of Arizona, and said he may have been on his way back to Arizona or Texas with the teen.
Layton police originally identified Zemen as “Hunter Fox” but later confirmed that is an alias he was using online. Zemen also goes by the name Tadashi Kojima, they said.
McConney and Zemen were found in a car at a gas station in Grand Island, Nebraska, at about 1:15 a.m., Layton Police Sgt. Glenn Johnson told KSL Wednesday morning.
“An alert gas station attendant had actually thought something looked suspicious about the car and these people that were there at the gas station, called the police department and they responded,” Layton Police Lt. Travis Lyman said.
Zemen is in police custody and one of the teen’s family members is headed to Nebraska to reunite with him.
Lyman earlier said the communication Evan and Zemen had was “of a nature that is very concerning to us.”
Evan’s mother, Heather McConney, told KSL she had found concerning conversations between her son and Zemen on her son’s phone and tried to stop communication between them.
“I don’t understand what this person had on my son, what grasp he had on him that convinced him to just walk away,” McConney said Tuesday night.
She said she has been distraught since her son left and she hoped he would return safely.
“Nobody’s mad at you. We get it. We understand. We’re your family. We’re not going anywhere,” she said, in hopes Evan might be listening to the news reports. “We’ll always be here for you no matter what. Please come home.”
Information about why the pair were in Nebraska was not immediately available.
Contributing: Linda Williams, Karah Brackin