Horror moment police find five children wearing scraps of clothes locked inside outdoor shed in Utah
By LAUREN ACTON-TAYLOR, US NEWS REPORTER
Five children wearing just scraps of clothing have been found locked inside an outdoor shed.
Officers were searching for the children’s father on a felony warrant when they made the horrifying discovery of the young children, all under the age of six, locked inside the shed on November 15.
Bodycam footage obtained by KSL-TV showed the officer forcibly opening the shed and setting them free after they were allegedly locked inside by their father, 36-year-old Wilber Rojas.
Once the door was opened, the kids, aged six, five, four, one and under one year old, walked out partially clothed and the infant was picked out of the crib inside.
Footage showed mattresses on the floor lined against the wall and toys scattered across the cramped shed.
Officers were heard asking the children if they had been given blankets, to which they said they were given a space heater, KSL reported.
Had the electrical heater set the wooden shed alight, there was ‘no means of escape’ for the children locked inside, according to an affidavit obtained by the outlet.
Police had earlier responded to a theft call after the children’s mother, 28-year-old Gabriela Salgado-Estrada, allegedly ‘placed new, unpaid-for items on several of the children,’ according to the affidavit.
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Ogden police were searching for the children’s father on a felony warrant when they found the young children, all under the age of six, locked inside the shed on November 15
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Footage showed mattresses on the floor lined against the wall and toys scattered across the cramped shed, with only an electrical heater for warmth
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The children’s father, 36-year-old Wilber Rojas seen above surrendering to police, had a felony warrant out for his arrest when police discovered the children locked up
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‘The children then took the tags off of those items, and Gabriela made no attempt to pay for them,’ the affidavit added.
‘She also placed items in the shopping cart, underneath a child carrier, that were not paid for. The unpaid items totaled just over $200.’
Salgado-Estrada was arrested on charges of retail theft before Rojas arrived at the store to pick the children up and took them home.
Rojas, however, allegedly gave police a fake Mexican ID under the name Omar Garcia, KSL reported.
Ogden police discovered the ID was a fake and identified him as Rojas, who has an active third-degree felony and a class C misdemeanor arrest warrant.
Officers arrived at the address the couple gave and spotted Rojas’ truck.
‘Contact was made with residents who were uncooperative, but stated that Wilber was not at the residence. A search warrant was obtained for the home for the apprehension of Wilber,’ the affidavit said.
Officers served a warrant to search the property and discovered the shed locked from the outside by a bolt lock and a cord, the outlet reported.
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Officers had earlier arrested the children’s mother, 28-year-old Gabriela Salgado-Estrada, on charges of retail theft when Rojas handed a fake ID to police as he picked up the children
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Rojas was booked into Weber County Jail on five charges of alleged child abuse and providing police with fake identification
The children walked out and the infant was handed to a family member who was stood outside with police. The relative was questioned by an officer as to why the children were locked up ‘from the outside in.’
‘They shouldn’t be in there,’ the family member was heard telling the officer.
Rojas was eventually discovered after police fired a bean-bag round to coax Rojas out after he hid for around thirty minutes.
He arrested on five counts of child abuse and providing police with fake identification and booked into Weber County Jail.
On Tuesday, Rojas pleaded guilty to owning a fake Social Security card in a separate incident in February after he tried to open a bank account.
It remains unclear who the children are now in the care of.
Pennsylvania mother arrested after police make horrifying discovery in closet
Bodies were found wrapped in towels and plastic bags in closet and attic of Ford City area home
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A Pennsylvania woman has been charged after police discovered the remains of her four infants in the closet and attic of a home she had been evicted from last month.
Jessica Marie Mauthe, 39, was arrested after her former landlord called police to the home she had lived in outside Ford City, about 40 miles northeast of Pittsburgh.
The landlord, Brent Flanigan, told WTAE-TV that he had law enforcement evict Mauthe for nonpayment on Aug. 14.
After he began cleaning the home, he came across a trash bag in a closet that had a foul odor and something wrapped in towels that was decomposing, according to the arrest affidavit issued Thursday.
The exterior of a house is shown in the Freeport area of Pa., Friday, Sept. 19, 2025 where Jessica Marie Mauthe, the woman facing a charge of homicide and multiple counts of abuse of a corpse, lived. (Massoud Hossaini/Pittsburgh Tribune-Review via AP)
Investigators searched the home and found the bodies of three other infants in the attic in tote bags, wrapped in towels and inside plastic bags, police said.
“Shocked. No one believed it. It’s just evil,” neighbor Carmen Felix told WTAE-TV. “How can you plop babies in the toilet? The girl across from here is a nurse, and she’s sick. She almost didn’t go to work today because she can’t get this off her mind.”
Mauthe’s former landlord said he discovered the corpse of one infant in a closet while cleaning out the home earlier this month. (Massoud Hossaini/Pittsburgh Tribune-Review via AP)
About a year ago, Mauthe told investigators, she gave birth to a child who made several noises before she held the child “against her, where it remained until it stopped making noises and stopped breathing,” police wrote.
Mauthe told troopers that one newborn had whimpered after she gave birth to it about six years ago, after which she passed out on the floor, according to the affidavit. When she awakened, the baby was beneath her and was not breathing, she told them.
Pennsylvania State Police have investigated the incident. (AP Photo/Aimee Dilger)
Mauthe was charged with criminal homicide, involuntary manslaughter and multiple counts of abuse of a corpse. She is being held in the Armstrong County Jail without bail.
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A preliminary hearing is scheduled for next week.
