PUBLIC RELATIONS UNIT

December 17, 2022

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Media Contact Information: PolicePRUnit@slcgov.com

SLCPD Cancels Amber Alert After 8 Month Investigation, Children Safe

SALT LAKE CITY — Overnight, the Salt Lake City Police Department canceled an Amber Alert in effect for eight months after detectives with the department’s Special Victims Unit developed information that led to the safe return of three at-risk children and the arrest of two adults.

This incident is being investigated as a custodial abduction.

This investigation started on April 13, 2022, when the Utah Division of Child and Family Services (DCFS) contacted the Salt Lake City Police Department and notified officers about a recent court ruling ordering Conchita Leona Peralta to surrender her children into DCFS protective custody.

When Peralta did not surrender her children, both DCFS and SLCPD attempted to contact her with no response.

Because the children were last seen in Salt Lake City, the SLCPD worked with the Utah Department of Public Safety to issue the Amber Alert in Utah so an Amber Alert could be simultaneously issued in South Dakota. That Amber Alert remained in effect until Friday December 17, 2022, when SLCPD detectives received information that Peralta and her three children had returned to Utah.

The SLCPD’s Special Victims Unit worked with the SLCPD’s Violent Criminal Apprehension Team (VCAT) to safely locate Peralta and the three children.

Detectives also arrested Peralta’s partner, Fermin Figueroa-Luque.

Both adults have been booked into the Salt Lake County Metro Jail on several outstanding warrants, including endangerment of a child and custodial interference.

The children are safe and in the custody of a responsible party.

The Salt Lake City Police Department would like to recognize the many law enforcement agencies that assisted with this eight-month investigation.

The SLCPD VCAT is a specialty unit within the department responsible for combating violent crime, by identifying and apprehending violent criminals and fugitives.  This unit works under the SLCPD Special Operations Division but also works closely with the Investigations, Patrol and Data and Research divisions to identify and direct targeted enforcement of hot spot areas and areas of rising violent crime.

Charges are only allegations, and every arrested person is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.

The Salt Lake City Police Department is not the custodian of record for jail booking photos. Utah Code 17-22-30 mostly prohibits the release of jail booking photos. Generally, a jail booking photo can only be released by the custodian of record after a conviction or when law enforcement determines the person is a fugitive or an imminent threat to a person or public safety. In Salt Lake City, the Salt Lake County Sheriff’s Office is the custodian of record for jail booking photos.

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