78-year-old Salt Lake City man kidnaps and sexually abuses teenager on her way home from school

SALT LAKE CITY — A 78-year-old Salt Lake City man has been charged with seven felony counts for kidnapping and sexually assaulting a teenage girl on her way home from school.

Tevita Hoihoi Mounga was charged Tuesday in 3rd District Court with aggravated kidnapping, two counts of forcible sodomy, three counts of rape with objects and aggravated sexual assault (all first-degree felonies), and damaging a cell phone (a class B misdemeanor).

On March 6, a 16-year-old girl was walking home from school near the corner of 500 North and 1000 West with cupcakes in her hand when, according to police, Mounga, whom the teen did not know, pulled up next to her in his truck.

Mounga apparently pointed to the cupcakes. The teenager couldn’t hear what he was saying, “so she opened the door to the car.” Then “Mounga grabbed her and drove away,” charging documents say.

When the girl’s cellphone began to ring, Mounga picked it up and threw it out the window, police said. He then drove the girl to a parking lot near the airport and abused her there, the indictment says.

According to investigators, the teenager eventually managed to fight off Mounga, get out of his truck and escape.

Using surveillance video, Salt Lake City Police investigators identified Mounga as a possible suspect and arrested him on Friday. In their arrest affidavit, police also noted that officers received additional reports on May 10 and May 22 of a man in a truck attempting to “lure young girls.”

“In both cases, witnesses were able to take photos of the suspect vehicle and license plate. The license plate belonged to a white Ford F-150 registered to … Tevita Mounga,” a police affidavit states.