Bountiful father charged with custodial interference

SALT LAKE CITY — A Bountiful father has been charged with custodial interference after he reportedly took his 5-year-old from the child’s mother, the custodial parent.

Benjamin Despain is accused of taking his son last Tuesday and telling the boy’s mother that he didn’t want his son to have a surgery that was scheduled for later that week.

The boy was reunited with his mother over the weekend. Despain was taken into custody.

This story is breaking and may be updated. KSL’s previous reporting follows:

The boy’s mother told KSL TV she hadn’t seen her son since Tuesday, Dec. 2. The woman’s ex-husband, Benjamin Despain, picked up their son on Tuesday at 5:30 p.m. for a scheduled visitation at her Bountiful home. The mother has sole physical and legal custody of their son, but has a weekly 3-hour visitation arrangement.

The boy’s mother said when she went to pick the boy up at around 8:30 p.m. at Despain’s Murray house, the pair were nowhere to be seen. Shortly after, the missing boy’s mom received an email from Despain stating that he was taking their son “away” to prevent him from having surgery and would be in contact on Friday or Saturday.

The missing boy was scheduled to have adenoid surgery on Thursday. However, according to his mother, Despain “does not like anything medical,” and thinks the surgery is unnecessary.

The boy’s mother believed Despain “likely” took their son somewhere out of state. Recently, the mother said Despain told her he wanted to take their son to visit Latter-day Saint church history sites out east and could have traveled in that direction. Police said they also investigated this possibility.

Bountiful Police Lt. Andrew Smith said local law enforcement agencies in Idaho and Montana, where Benjamin has relatives, had been dispatched to look for the pair but didn’t find them. Smith added that police were not able to confirm whether the pair left the state and had not yet obtained leads through license plate reader cameras.

The missing boy’s mom was concerned about Despain’s mental state, but police said they had no evidence to indicate that the 5-year-old boy was in imminent danger or had suffered bodily harm. Lt. Smith further said an Amber Alert was not issued for this reason.

On Wednesday, an ex parte protective order was issued against Despain, but police say they were not able to serve him because they hadn’t yet located him.