The full article is below, but here's the
TL;DR:
Kid's mother and grandmother agree to a plan by kid's aunt to "kidnap" him to teach him the concept of stranger danger because he was "too nice to people." Aunt asks a coworker to "kidnap" him. Guy does, in the process telling him some pretty horrible things and brandishing a gun, tying his hands and feet together, and leaving him in a basement for four hours. Mother was charged with kidnapping and abuse/neglect of a child. Grandmother, aunt, and coworker were all charged with kidnapping, felonious restraint, and abuse/neglect of a child.
I fully agree with the charges of felonious restraint and abuse/neglect of a child. And all these people sound like wretched, horrible people. But the charge that I found interesting was kidnapping, since I guess I always assumed the definition of kidnapping was the taking of child from his parents without consent. There was consent here by the kid's guardians. Can you kidnap your own kid, or are the authorities just adding that charge because none of the other charges really capture the extent of this crime?
Police: Family plots to teach child a lesson with fake kidnapping
TROY, MO (KTVI) – Family members plotted to have a six-year-old boy kidnapped to teach him a lesson on stranger danger because he was “too nice” to people, the Lincoln County Sheriff’s Office said Thursday.
According to the sheriff’s office, deputies learned of a kidnapping in Troy on February 4.
Investigators learned that sometime before February 2, 38-year-old Denise Kroutil approached a co-worker, 23-year-old Nathan Firoved, and asked him to kidnap her nephew to “scare” him. The victim’s mother, 25-year-old Elizabeth Hupp, and grandmother, 58-year-old Rose Brewer, agreed with the plan to kidnap the young boy to teach him a lesson.
The boy’s mother and grandmother did not know Nathan’s last name, only Kroutil.
On Monday, February 2, authorities said Firoved parked his pickup truck by the boy’s bus stop and waited for him to be dropped off after school. Firoved lured the six-year-old into his truck and drove off.
Firoved told the frightened young boy he would never see his mother again and that he would be “nailed to the wall of a shed.”
The young boy began crying, at which point Firoved pulled out a handgun and threatened to harm the child if he didn’t stop crying.
Investigators said Firovfed bound the boy’s hands and feet with plastic bags, then covered the child’s face with a jacket. Firoved drove the boy to his own home, carried the child into the basement, and left him there.
Kroutil, the boy’s aunt, walked down into the basement, pulled the victim’s pants down, and began shouting that he could be sold into sex slavery. She also allegedly chastised the child for not trying to resist her or Firoved.
The boy was kept in the basement for some time longer before he was finally unbound and allowed to go upstairs, at which time his family lectured him about stranger danger.
Family members and Firoved kept in contact via cell phone during the whole ordeal, which lasted about four hours.
The victim told school authorities on Wednesday, who then contacted the Missouri Division of Family Services. The sheriff’s office was called to the home and the child placed into protective custody.
The family members told investigators their intent was to educate the child and felt they had done nothing wrong.
Firoved, Brewer, and Kroutil were charged with kidnapping, felonious restraint, and abuse/neglect of a child. They remain in custody at Lincoln County Jail on $250,000 bond. The boy’s mother, Hupp, was charged with kidnapping and abuse/neglect of a child. She remains jailed on a $250,000 cash-only bond.
