On the cold night of Jan. 17, FrontRunner train operator Francis Rendon saw a shadowy figure ahead on the tracks. He hit the emergency brakes, blasted the horn and saw the person run off to the side. He guessed it was a teenage trespasser.
With permission from dispatchers, he climbed down from his stopped engine to look around. He saw no one, so he was cleared to proceed to the nearby Layton station. But a nagging feeling stopped him.
Rendon figured the person just could not have disappeared so fast from the area. So he took a flashlight and looked under the first passenger car.