ST. GEORGE — Additional charges have been filed against a fugitive wanted on a first-degree felony warrant out of Virginia after officers found a woman who was reportedly assaulted and forced into sex work by the fugitive.

2017 file photo for illustrative purposes only of St. George Police officers responding to the Coronada Inn on St. George Boulevard in St. George, Utah, Sept. 15, 2017 | File photo by Cody Blowers, St. George News

Additional charges were filed Friday against Denzel Jerome Waddy, 33, of Kents Store, Virginia, following his arrest last weekend when officers found him in a local motel room with a victim who was reportedly abducted from out of state.

The investigation began March 7 when the St. George Consolidated Communications Center received a call from an emergency dispatch center in Buffalo, Wyoming, alerting authorities that a suspect had reportedly abducted a woman out of Virginia and then traveled to the area.

The call was turned over to the Washington County Focused Operation Group and St. George Police detectives who started checking hotels for a vehicle that was allegedly being driven by a fugitive, Waddy. He was wanted for felony strangulation out of Virginia and was suspected of abducting a woman he was traveling with who could be in danger.

According to charging documents filed with the court, the suspect’s vehicle, a 2016 blue Mazda 3 with a Virginia license plates was found parked at the Coronada Inn on St. George Boulevard, as reported by St. George News on Monday.  

Officers approached and detained Waddy, while a woman exited the room wrapped in a blanket and was placed in a patrol vehicle to keep her warm due to the cold weather.

Investigators then advised the woman that they wanted to speak to her because they thought she needed help. During an interview with police, the victim said she was being forced to engage in sex work by Waddy, whom she said was physically assaulting her and had strangled the woman while they were in Las Vegas, Nevada, according to the report.

She went on to explain that Waddy would arrange for her to perform sex acts so they could get money, food or rooms and that Waddy would tell her that he had found a room for them for the night. Additionally, she was told she was “going to need to work for it,” including the room the suspect rented in St. George, the officer noted in the report. 

The woman’s statements were corroborated by another individual who spoke to investigators.

Officers also noted the woman had marks on her neck, a cigarette burn on her chest and a black eye from an incident that occurred in Las Vegas a few weeks prior, adding the suspect assaulted her when she told him she did not want to continue engaging in sex work.

When investigators asked the woman if she was in danger, she stated that Waddy told her, “If I can’t have you, no one will.”

Officers also saw photos of the victim that appeared to be heavily edited with filters and posted in sex work advertisements.

In this file photo, the lights of the Las Vegas Strip illuminate the night sky, date not specified | Associated Press file photo, St. George News

Based on the victim’s injuries and what was revealed during the investigation, investigators determined that Waddy engaged in human trafficking by transporting the victim from Virginia across the country and telling her that she was going to need to work for them to have a room that night. 

With Waddy in custody following his arrest last weekend on the fugitive warrant out of Virginia, the Washington County Attorney’s Office filed first-degree felony aggravated human trafficking and second-degree felony human trafficking charges against the suspect who remains in custody in Washington County without bail.

This report is based on statements from court records, police or other responders and may not contain the full scope of findings. Persons arrested or charged are presumed innocent until found guilty in a court of law or as otherwise decided by a trier-of-fact.

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