Published Jul 21, 2026, 2:08 PM EDT
The duo allegedly use zip ties to detain the U.S. Forest Service employees, with audio compiled at the scene.
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Published Jul 21, 2026, 2:08 PM EDT
A father and son have been federally charged after allegedly using rifles to kidnap two U.S. Forest Service biologists at gunpoint as part of a 15-hour standoff with law enforcement in a remote Northern California forest. Joseph Charles Henrichsen, 49, and his son, Phoenix Henrichsen, 23, of Siskiyou County, Calif., were charged July 20 with kidnapping federal employees, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of California. Both were detained in Sacramento, where they did not enter pleas. The two federal employees are females. The employees were conducting a frog-habitat survey near Gumboot Lake Campground in the Shasta-Trinity National Forest on July 16, when Joseph Henrichsen allegedly approached them carrying an AR-15-style rifle, according to the criminal complaint. He zip-tied their wrists behind their backs and led them to a nearby trailer. Phoenix Henrichsen is accused of aiding and abetting by keeping watch over the hostages when his father stepped away. The FBI conducted the investigation with assistance from the U.S. Forest Service, Homeland Security Investigations, the Bureau of Land Management, the Siskiyou County Sheriff’s Office, the Shasta County Sheriff’s Office, the Mt. Shasta Police Department, the California Department of Fish and Wildlife, and the California Highway Patrol. Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins, whose department includes the Forest Service, said she was relieved the employees were home safe.
