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Stepdad Wakes Up Startled When He Hears His Daughter’s Voice. He Walks Downstairs Just in Time.

Forty-nine-year-old Troy Morley said he had a good job, a good life. But he gave it all up when a drug-induced paranoia resulted in him being sentenced to six years in prison.

According to ABC News, Morley was high on meth when he attempted to kidnap a five-year-old girl from her bed.

En route back to his home in northern Utah, Morley stopped at a hotel near Salt Lake City. After telling the hotel front desk to call 911, he walked towards a neighborhood.

There, he entered the Edson’s home and grabbed their young daughter. Reports indicate that in his drug-induced state, Morley believed the girl would somehow protect him.

Thankfully, the girl’s stepfather, Aaron Edson, awoke when he heard her voice. Apparently, the five-year-old has cerebral palsy, and because her condition makes it difficult to leave her room on her own, Aaron was startled when he heard her voice in a different part of the home. He spotted Morley as he was attempting to walk out the front door with the girl in his arms.

After asking Morley to return the girl, he handed her over to Aaron and was arrested shortly after.

Though prosecutors dismissed charges of burglary, criminal trespassing, and interference with an arresting officer, Morley plead guilty to one count of child kidnapping, for which he was sentenced to six years.

For Stephanie Edson, this sentence is not long enough; she argues that drugs are not solely at fault. The family has had to uproot their life because of the incident; they’ve moved houses and have replaced clothing and furniture that remind the young girl of the incident.

Luckily, though, they know they don’t have to be worried anymore.

“We can scare ourselves about what would have happened or could have happened. Thankfully, we don’t have to scare ourselves,” Stephanie said.
But Aaron acknowledges that had he not been there, the situation could have had a very different outcome.

“There is virtually no chance we would have seen our daughter again had I not been in the right place at the right time,” he said.