A 38-year-old Sevier County man pleaded guilty earlier this month to causing the dehydration death of his infant daughter — and then went on the run.
But David Lewis Anderson was arrested about a week later in North Carolina while trying to check into a homeless shelter, Sevier County Sheriff Nathan Curtis said Thursday.
Anderson gave his real name at the Wilmington, N.C., shelter, and someone there searched his name on Facebook, discovering a news article and other posts reporting he had absconded in the homicide case.
Wilmington police were notified and arrested Anderson, who is being held for extradition back to Utah, Curtis said.
On Sept. 5, a 6th District Court judge issued a no-bail arrest warrant for Anderson — who had been free on a $10,000 bond — after he failed to appear for sentencing.
Anderson had pleaded guilty in June to second-degree felony child-abuse homicide in connection with the June 7, 2016, death of his 11-month-old daughter, Siri.
The crime carries a potential punishment of up to 15 years in prison.
The state medical examiner found the child died from dehydration due to neglect, according to court documents.
Anderson — the sole caretaker of the child in the weeks before her death — called 911 at about noon on June 7, 2016, to report she was not breathing.
The girl, who would have turned 1 year old the next day, was pronounced dead at a hospital.
Sevier County sheriff’s officers reported the child was “very dirty, and smelled of urine and feces,” court documents state.
She was wearing a soiled paper, had severe diaper rash and dry, cracked lips “and her eyes appeared to be sunken in her skull,” court documents state.
Anderson’s home had no air conditioning and the temperature was in the low 90s, according to a sheriff’s deputy, who reported that flies were buzzing about unwashed dishes in the kitchen.
Flies also buzzed over urine-soaked bedding in the child’s bedroom, which smelled “as pungent as the odor of vinegar,” according to court documents.
Anderson told investigators he had taken Siri off baby formula and was giving her more solid foods, court documents state.
On the morning of the child’s death, Anderson had been seen at a convenience store without Siri, or an older daughter. At another store, the man was seen with the older daughter, but not Siri, court documents state.
The child’s mother had been removed from the home twice in the months prior to the child’s death — in February 2016 for allegedly threatening Anderson with a knife, and on May 25, 2016, for violating a protective order issued after her February arrest.