RIVERDALE, Utah, Jan. 1, 20224 (Gephardt Daily) — The Riverdale Police Department is thanking the agencies that contributed to the return ofthe 17-year-old exchange student from China who was found Sunday, cold and hungry but safe, in a tent in Box Elder County.
“Great Work Riverdale PD, Weber County Sheriff’s Office Search and Rescue Drone Team, Utah DPS Aero Bureau, The FBI, and Brigham City Police and Fire,” said Riverdale police in a statement issued Monday, and includes photos and brief videos.
Police say the teen was the victim of “cyber kidnapping,” who reportedly convinced the juvenile to provide photos of himself, which they sent to his parents, saying Zhuang had been kidnapped, and can be released after a ransom payment.
The cyber kidnappers tell the victims to isolate themselves, and they monitor them through video calls, Riverdale Police Chief Casey Warren said in a news release Sunday.
“The victims comply out of fear that their families will be harmed if they don’t comply with the cyber kidnappers,” Warren’s statement says. “The cyber kidnappers continue to extort the family by using fear tactics, photos, and voice recordings of the victim leading the family to believe the kidnappers are with the victim causing them harm.”
The student was reported missing from his Utah host family’s residence in Riverdale about 8:30 p.m. Thursday.
His family in China told police via phone they had transferred approximately $80,000 to bank accounts in China “due to continuous threats from the kidnappers,” Warren said.
Riverdale police worked with the FBI, U.S. Embassy in China and other Chinese officials to locate Zhuang, police said.
“Through these interactions, we learned of a disturbing criminal trend called cyber kidnapping,” Warren said.
“After analyzing and assessing bank records, purchases over the last month, phone ping records and the camping incident in Provo, we found the victim had visited the Brigham City canyon area,” Warren said. “We believed the victim was isolating himself at the direction of the cyber kidnappers in a tent. Due to the cold weather in Utah at this time of year, we became additionally concerned for the victim’s safety in that he may freeze to death overnight.”
The Weber County Sheriff’s Office used a drone to search possible campsites overnight and into the next day. A Utah Department of Public Safety helicopter also assisted in the search, as did Brigham City police.
A Riverdale detective hiked on foot up the mountainside and found the missing teen’s tent in a wooded area, Warren said.
“(He) contacted the victim inside the tent and found he was alive but very cold and scared,” he said. “The victim was relieved to see police.”
After leaving the unheated tent, the teen requested a warm cheeseburger and a chance to call his family to say he was safe.
