Man arrested after police say he raped a teenager and threatened to kill her family
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MALAD — A 20-year-old man was arrested after police say he threatened to kill a 13-year-old girl’s family and then raped her.
Joseph Michael Uryan Gunderson is charged with three counts of felony rape and one count of lewd conduct with a child under 16.
Gunderson is also charged in a second case with misdemeanor sexual battery.
Court documents say on Aug. 27, an Oneida County Sheriff’s detective responded to Malad Middle School for a report that a 20-year-old man was asking two children for naked photos.
The detective spoke with a 13-year-old victim, who said Gunderson added her on Snapchat in April.
According to the victim, Gunderson asked her to “hang out with (him) after midnight.” The victim stated she felt “like she couldn’t say no to him because she felt like she was being forced to.”
The victim told the detective that Gunderson said he was “going to buy Monster and condoms,” but she did not believe him.
Gunderson then allegedly picked the victim up and drove them “to the middle of nowhere” and began sexually assaulting the victim.
The victim says he then drove them to his house, where he said they would watch a movie. When they arrived, Gunderson reportedly led her to the basement, where he raped her. Afterward, the victim says she went home and didn’t tell anyone because she was scared.
In one instance, the victim says Gunderson told the victim he wanted to shower with her. She backed herself into a corner in his bedroom and he allegedly “drug her down the stairs and into basement into the bathroom and forced her to shower with him,” according to court documents.
Police reports say the victim was raped multiple times between April and June when she stopped communicating with him, but Gunderson continued to try and contact her at the end of July and again in the last week of August.
The victim told the detective that Gunderson was also talking to her thirteen-year-old friend and he asked the friend to do sexual acts with him.
On Aug. 30, the victim participated in a forensic interview, where she stated the assaults happened in Gunderson’s relative’s basement. According to the victim, she would sneak out of her home and meet Gunderson in his truck down the road.
This victim stated she felt “threatened and forced” by Gunderson to hang out with him and do inappropriate things because he said he would “do something to her sister or dad” if she did not send him sexual photos.
According to police reports, Gunderson threatened to kill the victim’s dad if she did not “hang out with him” and still consistently tried to contact her through Snapchat, TikTok, texting, and Instagram, even after blocking him.
When asked what made her disclose what happened, the victim says she told a teacher, who reported the alleged sexual assault to a school counselor.
A warrant was issued for Gunderson’s arrest on Sept. 13, and he was booked into the Oneida County Jail on the same day with a bond of $50,000.
Gunderson was arraigned on Monday, but further court hearings have not yet been scheduled. If convicted, Gunderson could face up to life in prison.
Though Gunderson has been charged with these crimes, it does not necessarily mean he committed them. Everyone is presumed innocent until they are proven guilty.