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Utah man accused of drugging, raping relative in Idaho

Posted at 10:36 PM, Apr 08, 2018
and last updated 2018-04-08 22:36:08-04

A Utah man is in custody in Fremont County after allegedly raping an adult family member.

Jacob Oberg, 26, is accused of a drugging and raping a 23-year-old female relative while on a camping trip in Island Park last June. Both the victim and the suspect are from the Roy, Utah, area.

Court documents show the incident was reported to Fremont County Sheriff deputies over the phone by the victim’s stepfather sometime afterward. Deputies worked with the Roy City Police Department to interview the suspect and victim and investigate the crime.

During interviews, the victim told officers she drank a beer given to her by Oberg during the outing. After drinking it, she said she became dizzy, “felt paralyzed” and like her fingers were tingling. She said she felt it was hard to breathe.

Then, Oberg allegedly began kissing the victim on the face and neck and then led her to a camper, where he undressed her. The victim reports going in and out of consciousness, but says she could see Oberg sexually assaulting her. She said she wasn’t able to do anything to defend herself as she couldn’t move her arms or legs.

She also remembered hearing the sounds of a camera click from a cell phone and thought Oberg had documented the incident.

Documents show the victim was in pain due to the alleged rape and very sick after it had taken place. She also reported her undergarments were missing.

Fremont County detectives received a warrant for Oberg’s cell phone and confiscated it. They found numerous Snapchat messages between Oberg and the victim on the phone. They also found a picture message of what appeared to be a male and a female having sex with an explicit caption. The text suggests it could have been the victim in the photo.

Deputies also found messages where the victim confronted Oberg about “slipping something into her drink” and that she knows about the alleged rape. The victim also said she wasn’t going to tell anyone because she didn’t want to hurt other relatives.

In the Snapchat messages, Oberg replied, “Ok sorry that I went too far, I was drunk, I know that is no exvuse (sic).”

He also told her, “I think it is best to go back to normal likr (sic) before and never mention anything I think we can borh (sic) handle it I will nave (sic) make another segestive (sic) comment again. I enjoy chilling and smoking with u.”

A warrant was issued by Fremont County detectives in August, and Oberg was arrested in September.

Documents show Oberg has a history of taking the victim’s underwear when they were younger. Additionally, Oberg has a history of sexually abusing the victim while she was between the ages of 8 and 12, and he was a juvenile. He was caught by a family member and formally charged. That case is sealed due to the suspect being a juvenile at that time.

Oberg was on probation in Utah at the time of the incident in Island Park. Dates on the Idaho repository overlap and show the case was closed on Nov. 6, and a new case with the same charge was filed opened the same day. It’s unclear why it was re-filed. Fremont County Prosecuting Attorney Marcia Murdoch declined to comment on the case.

“My office policy is that I don’t discuss open cases while they’re still pending,” Murdoch said.

Oberg remains in custody at the Fremont County Jail. His bond is set at $50,000.

He is scheduled for a pretrial conference on April 16.