{"id":12141,"date":"2026-07-21T02:44:17","date_gmt":"2026-07-20T21:44:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=12141"},"modified":"2026-07-21T02:44:17","modified_gmt":"2026-07-20T21:44:17","slug":"father-son-duo-kidnapped-u-s-forest-service-workers-held-them-hostage-feds-say","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=12141","title":{"rendered":"Father-son duo kidnapped U.S. Forest Service workers, held them hostage, feds say"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><script>\r\n  atOptions = {\r\n    'key' : '644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6',\r\n    'format' : 'iframe',\r\n    'height' : 90,\r\n    'width' : 728,\r\n    'params' : {}\r\n  };\r\n<\/script>\r\n<script src=\"https:\/\/www.highperformanceformat.com\/644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<br \/>\n<br \/><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/ca-times.brightspotcdn.com\/dims4\/default\/63d6f02\/2147483647\/strip\/false\/crop\/4140x2893+0+0\/resize\/1500x1048!\/quality\/75\/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcalifornia-times-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2F7f%2Fca%2F24b1adc54ccab0d5e20b9714b11c%2F1156163-me-mt-shasta-climbing-20-mjc.JPG\" \/><\/p>\n<div data-element=\"story-body\" data-subscriber-content=\"\">\n<p>Federal authorities have charged a father-son duo with kidnapping federal employees after a dramatic incident last week in which prosecutors say two U.S. Forest Service employees in California were held at gunpoint, zip-tied and kept inside a trailer for some 15 hours.<\/p>\n<p>U.S.  Atty. Eric Grant of the Eastern District of California <a class=\"link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.justice.gov\/usao-edca\/pr\/two-men-charged-kidnapping-us-forest-service-employees-after-fifteen-hour-standoff\" target=\"_blank\">announced Monday <\/a>that 49-year-old Joseph Charles Henrichsen and his son Phoenix Henrichsen, 23, of Siskiyou County had been charged in the crime.<\/p>\n<p>The two Forest Service employees were conducting field work near Gumboot Lake Campground in a remote area of the Shasta-Trinity National Forest when they were abducted last week, according to federal authorities.<\/p>\n<p>The incident \u201ctriggered a massive law enforcement response\u201d from various local, state and federal authorities, and after tense negotiations, the FBI\u2019s Hostage Rescue Team was  able to secure the release of the two employees and the surrender of the father and son early Friday morning, the U.S. Attorney\u2019s office said. <\/p>\n<p>The U.S. Attorney\u2019s office alleged that the elder Henrichsen at one point used one of the victims\u2019 phones to place a call during which he explicitly stated that he had \u201ctaken two fed [employees] hostage from the Forest Service,\u201d and that he had \u201clive rounds ready\u201d to deal with anyone who came  at him, using multiple expletives in his speech.<\/p>\n<p>Authorities said last week they were still working to understand the motivation for the kidnapping. <\/p>\n<p>The elder Henrichsen has a criminal history that includes arrests in Oregon and California, according to the <a class=\"link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.sacbee.com\/news\/local\/crime\/article316555168.html\" target=\"_blank\">Sacramento Bee<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>If convicted, the men could face a maximum statutory penalty of life in prison and a $250,000 fine. <\/p>\n<p><i>Times staff writers Clara Harter and Jasmine Mendez contributed to this report.<\/i><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<script async=\"async\" data-cfasync=\"false\" src=\"https:\/\/pl30214220.effectivecpmnetwork.com\/9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<div id=\"container-9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\"><\/div>\r\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Federal authorities have charged a father-son duo with kidnapping federal employees after a dramatic incident last week in which prosecutors say two U.S. Forest Service employees in California were held at gunpoint, zip-tied and kept inside a trailer for some 15 hours. U.S. Atty. Eric Grant of the Eastern District of California announced Monday that&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":12142,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/ca-times.brightspotcdn.com\/dims4\/default\/1fcea48\/2147483647\/strip\/true\/crop\/4140x2174+0+360\/resize\/1200x630!\/quality\/75\/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcalifornia-times-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2F7f%2Fca%2F24b1adc54ccab0d5e20b9714b11c%2F1156163-me-mt-shasta-climbing-20-mjc.JPG","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12141","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-hub"],"brizy_media":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12141","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=12141"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12141\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/12142"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=12141"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=12141"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=12141"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}