Victim loved helping troubled teens

Doug Mahlstede, whose home was damaged when the car slammed into it, said, "He tried to take the knife out and said, 'You should stab me, kill me now.' I told him to keep it in his pocket." The teen was treated at Davis Hospital for internal injuries suffered in the crash. He was released from the hospital and booked into the Davis County Jail Friday.

Beverly Elton said her granddaughter enjoyed her work at YHA.

"She really had a love for those kids there. She wanted to help them in their lives. She wouldn't have done anything that would have made them angry, I'm sure," Elton said. "I didn't realize it was the kind of facility it was. She didn't have any protection, I guess. There just was no one there when she took the fellow home."

Houston is scheduled to make his first appearance before a judge in Farmington's 2nd District Court on Tuesday. That same day, Raechale Elton's family will hold her funeral in Tooele.

McGuire explained the adult charges against Houston: "I think the particular crime, how it came about, what happened during the crime, plus the background of the juvenile, makes it such that we would seek that kind of resolution (lifetime incarceration). I think that's appropriate."

Houston has been in state custody since 2004. He told Mahlstede that he had recently been released from a "rapist recovery center" after fooling people into thinking he had been successfully treated.

Elton's family was outraged.

"I'd certainly like to see him prosecuted for those evil, terrible things that he's done," said Beverly Elton. "I know he's sick, but I just don't understand how he could be released to be out and basically be on his own in society. I guess he just manipulated them to think he was OK and that he was doing well."

At Weber State, Johnson said he had mentored Raechale and she was supposed to be in his senior seminar class this fall. "She had an altruistic nature and was very savvy, a very smart woman. She's the kind of person that keeps professors in the business."

YHA officials said that Elton had been trained and certified according to state regulations. The Utah Department of Human Services' Office of Licensing has launched an investigation into the incident.

Johnson said his student was not naive about the dangers of working in group homes for troubled teens. In fact, he said, she had chosen youth counseling as a career after college.

"She was very realistic about the problems," he said. "In criminal justice we have these unexpected dangers that lurk, and that's what happened with her."

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E-mail: bwinslow@desnews.com