Two U.S.Forest Service employees were rescued with the help of negotiators after being zip-tied and held hostage for nearly 15 hours at Shasta-Trinity National Forest in northern California, officials said Friday.
Subscribe to read this story ad-freeGet unlimited access to ad-free articles and exclusive content.The two employees were conducting field work when two armed people took them hostage early Thursday, Siskiyou County Sheriff Jeremiah LaRue said at a news conference Friday.The sheriff’s office received a call at 10:55 a.m.from a U.S.
Forest Service law enforcement officer reporting that two Forest Service employees were zip-tied and being held at gunpoint inside a trailer at Gumboot Lake, near Mount Shasta, LaRue said.Authorities identified the person accused of holding them as Joseph Henrichsen, 49.“Mr.
Henrichsen indicated that he had firearms, ammunition, and wanted to speak with the FBI,” LaRue said.The sheriff’s office sent deputies and its special response team to the location — described as a rural and rugged area — around noon and deployed drones, he said.The FBI’s Sacramento field office was contacted at 12:20 p.m.
and deployed agents from Redding, a crisis negotiation team and SWAT, as well as a hostage rescue team and assets from Quantico, Virginia, said Brian Tosh, the FBI Sacramento acting special agent in charge.Just after 1 p.m., drones helped authorities identify a trailer where Henrichsen was.Soon after, local, state and federal resources began to flock to the scene, officials said.
Negotiations started around 4 p.m.“There’s a lot that transpired between that,” LaRue said.“At about 1:50 a.m., the survivors, the hostages, the two employees of the Forest Service were released, and I’m so incredibly proud of that.”The first hostage came out alone, followed 15 minutes later by the second, Tosh said.
Then around 2:30 a.m., Henrichsen and his adult son, Phoenix Henrichsen, surrendered and exited the trailer, LaRue s...