Utah Man Arrested After Discarded Child-Like Sex Dolls Were Discovered at Area Landfill

A twisted discovery at a Utah landfill has led to the arrest of a 54-year-old man who allegedly believed he had adequately covered his tracks, police claim.

The Iron County Sheriff’s Office arrested Shane Alexander Larson, who lives in Cedar City, on Friday, March 20.

A week earlier, a worker at a Utah landfill called 911 after coming across a discarded box containing sex dolls resembling children.

The shipping label, police alleged, was left on the box that the dolls were shipped in, and while Larson had used a Sharpie marker to black out his name and address, police said in a booking affidavit that the text was “still legible.”

Cops successfully obtained a search warrant from a judge, which they later served at Larson’s home, where police allegedly found more than a dozen of the life-like dolls in his possession. Five of the dolls, authorities allege, were “made to appear consistent with pre-pubescent juvenile females.”

Several electronic devices were also confiscated from Larson’s home and will be searched as part of the investigation, according to investigators.

Larson was charged with six counts of distributing or purchasing a child sex doll, a third-degree felony, and six counts of possession of a child sex doll, a misdemeanor.

When questioned by police, Larson allegedly admitted that the dolls found at the garbage dump were his and that he is the one who discarded them. He said he got rid of the dolls “because they appeared to look too young,” according to the arrest report.

It was unclear if Larson was represented by a defense attorney on Sunday, March 22. He has yet to enter pleas to any of the charges.

In 2023, Utah passed HB108, a law to ban “child sex dolls,” defining them as anatomically correct dolls with features that resemble minors and that are intended for sexual use.

The enrolled bill makes possession a class A misdemeanor with a mandatory minimum $2,500 fine. It further makes distributing or purchasing a child sex doll a third-degree felony with a mandatory minimum fine of $10,000.

The arrest comes after authorities in New Orleans arrested a man for possessing child porn and importing a child sex doll. Jamie Borne was detained on February 25 after a routine probation turned up a “child-size sex doll” in his bedroom.

Borne, 30, is now charged with 40 felony counts of pornography involving juveniles under the age of 13 and one felony count of possessing, trafficking or importing a child sex doll. His bond was set at $2 million for the child porn and $50,000 for the doll.

Plea and attorney information was not available at the time of publication.