Utah woman leads police on chase with child in vehicle, police say

SALT LAKE CITY — A woman who police say led officers on a high-speed chase near the Utah-Arizona border while her young daughter was in the car was arrested after officers were able to spike her tires near Kanab.

Ana Mirian Najarro, 43, was booked into the Kane County Jail on Jan. 28 for investigation of child abuse, failing to stop at the command of police and other potential crimes.

Police were initially called on a possible child abduction involving a woman in a Jeep and a girl that appeared to be 10, according to a police affidavit. The vehicle was last seen heading south on state Route 89A from Kanab toward Fredonia, Arizona.

The vehicle was spotted by police in Fredonia but the driver refused to pull over. Instead, Najarro turned around and started heading back to Utah, the affidavit states.

As a Kanab officer joined in the pursuit, the Fredonia officer attempted to stop Najarro by pulling in front of her. Instead, she swerved into oncoming traffic to get around the officer, the affidavit states, and that happened several times.

A Kane County sheriff’s deputy set up spike strips and deflated Najarro’s rear passenger tire. She kept driving, however, and a one point “swerved to the left I believe trying to hit the county patrol truck that was next to it,” the officer wrote in the affidavit.

A second set of tire spikes were deployed and police say Najarro eventually came to a stop after three of her tires went flat.

Police learned that the child in Najarro’s Jeep was actually her daughter and that she “had kept her daughter up all night trying to rebuke Satan from her,” the affidavit states. When she was taken to a local hospital to be physically and mentally evaluated, Najarro continued to have outbursts, rebuking Satan and stating, “Jesus loves you.”

She eventually told police she was headed to California “to seek spiritual guidance from her mother” but turned around when police tried to pull her over. Najarro said she did not pull over because she was afraid police would try to take her daughter away, according to the affidavit.

She also admitted to ingesting THC products within the previous two days, police said.