Woman arrested for allegedly stabbing man while camping in Uintah County

UINTAH COUNTY, Utah (ABC4) — A woman has been arrested after she allegedly stabbed a man while they were camping together in Uintah County. She claims that it was done in self-defense.

Emily Ann Trujillo, 40, has been arrested for aggravated assault and use or possession of drug paraphernalia. She has not been formally charged yet.

According to the arrest statement, on Sept. 30, 2025, a 61-year-old man went to a 7-Eleven in Vernal to ask where the hospital was, saying he had been stabbed. The attendant noticed that the man was “holding his upper chest area.”

The 61-year-old went to the hospital, and doctors found that he had a broken rib and a punctured lung with pneumothorax (collapsed lung). He reported to law enforcement that he was camping with Trujillo and had gone for a drive.

While the two were near the Dodd Hollow turnoff on Taylor Mountain Road, Trujillo stabbed him, the man alleged. The 61-year-old said he had dropped his phone in the area.

The Uintah County Sheriff’s Office went to the area of Taylor Mountain Road and located a phone on the road. Tire tread marks were found, indicating that the vehicle had “suddenly veered off the road into the right shoulder before braking and driving away.” Shoeprints matching the 61-year-old’s shoes were located alongside a smaller set of shoeprints.

The responding sheriff’s deputy was given consent by the 61-year-old to search the vehicle. Inside, law enforcement allegedly located a small amount of blood near the driver’s handle and a purse containing “smoking pipes” with what appeared to be methamphetamine residue.

Local agencies performed a search for Trujillo for several hours. Eventually, a sheriff’s deputy noticed her in the passenger seat of a truck driving down Taylor Mountain Road. He stopped the vehicle and asked the passenger if she was Trujillo.

Trujillo told the sheriff’s deputy that she was “trying to get away from a guy she had gone camping with” and that she had “ended up stabbing him in self-defense.” When asked for more information, Trujillo allegedly claimed that the 61-year-old had a gun, and she stabbed him in the leg in self-defense.

Documents say that a knife was located in Trujillo’s purse, but they are going to take it in for forensic analysis to confirm whether it was the weapon used in the stabbing.

Trujllo declined to provide any additional details leading up to the alleged stabbing. She was arrested and booked into the Uintah County Jail, where she is being held without bail.