A tense encounter between hikers and a horseback rider has led to an arrest warrant and nine criminal charges.
Summit County Sheriff’s Office confirms the standoff happened this July on Meadow Creek Trail outside of Frisco. Deputies met a group of four hikers who were upset and shaking, as they explained how a woman on horseback with a dog threatened to trample and shoot them. It started when the hikers told the woman her dog should be on a leash.
The hikers did not see a firearm, but worried about their safety and snapped a photo of the horseback rider. They told deputies the suspect was slinging homophobic slurs as she rode off.
The case went cold until recently, when detectives made a break – thanks to that photo. It revealed the horse’s brand. The Summit County brand inspector sent this to a western registry of livestock brands, which traced the animal to a woman in New Mexico.
Detectives called the woman, who admitted she had been on the trail that day and encountered a group of hikers. During the call with detectives, she referred to the hikers as “old fat woman,” “the idiot” and “Peter Pan,” and claimed she was acting in self-defense.
Detectives say her story did not add up. The woman is now wanted on four counts of misdemeanor menacing, four counts of bias motivated crimes, and one count of reckless endangerment.