(FOX40.COM) — Three days after a father and son were arrested for holding two federal workers hostage in rural California, the FBI is still searching for answers.
The FBI’s Sacramento office said Monday afternoon it “continues to seek first-hand information from the public” to help in investigating Joseph Charles Henrichsen and his son, Phoenix, urging those with information to call 1-800-CALL-FBI or to submit tips online.
Joseph and Phoenix Henrichsen, 49 and 23 years of age respectively, appeared in court for the first time Monday, where they were formally charged with kidnapping federal employees, U.S. Attorney Eric Grant said.
A judge ordered the pair detained without bond. Their next court date is set for a preliminary examination Aug. 3.
If convicted, they would face up to life in prison and a $250,000 fine.
Read more: US Forest Service workers kidnapped; hostage situation ends in arrests
The Henirchsens allegedly abducted two U.S. Forest Service field employees working near Gumboot Lake Campground in Siskiyou County last Thursday. According to federal prosecutors, they were kidnapped at gunpoint, bound and taken to a remote trailer where they were held hostage for 15 hours.
“At one point, Joseph used one of the victim’s phones to place a call in which he brazenly stated that he had ‘taken two fed [employees] hostage from the Forest Service,’ that one of the victims was ‘ziptied,’ with [their] hands “behind [their] [expletive] back,’ and that he had ‘live rounds ready to [expletive] anyone who [expletives] with me,'” the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of California said in a news release Monday.
After a standoff, the Henrichsens finally released the hostages in the early hours of Friday morning. Shortly thereafter, the two men were taken into custody
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