Girl, 15, Murdered While on Phone Call With Mom

Suspect in death of Baleigh Bagshaw has been arrested
By Evann Gastaldo,  Newser Staff
Posted May 9, 2018 2:37 PM CDT
Girl, 15, Murdered While on Phone Call With Mom
Baleigh Bagshaw is shown in a collage from the GoFundMe campaign for her family.   (GoFundMe)

Baleigh Bagshaw, 15, had just gotten home from school on Monday and called her mom to check in. Then, the unthinkable: "While she was on the phone with her mother, she was brutally attacked while inside of her home. Her mother heard the attack going on and then the phone went dead," a Salt Lake City police sergeant tells Deseret News. Bagshaw's mother heard screaming and called a neighbor, who went to the house and called police. Police found the teen dead at the house, Fox 13 reports. After a manhunt, suspect Shaun French was taken into custody Wednesday in Colorado, KUTV reports. Police say he was "lying in wait" for the teen.

French, 24, once lived in the same house as Bagshaw and her family, but did not live there when Bagshaw was murdered. Police say he and the teen had a consensual but illegal relationship, but it's not clear how long the relationship lasted or when French lived in the house. An arrest warrant charging him with three counts of unlawful sexual activity with a minor was issued Tuesday; he has not yet been charged in Bagshaw's death. Police have not said how Bagshaw was killed or if weapons were involved, simply saying she died in a "very violent attack." Says the police sergeant, "I can't even guess what the mother would be going through right now. Our hearts and thoughts are with her." A GoFundMe campaign has been set up for the family. (More murder stories.)

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