FBI details how 2 Forest Service biologists survived 15-hour hostage ordeal

A father and son were charged with kidnapping two federal employees on Monday after they allegedly held two female U.S. Forest Service biologists hostage for about 15 hours inside a camping trailer by Gumboot Lake in a remote area of the Shasta-Trinity National Forest, according to Sacramento federal court records. 

The biologists were conducting a Forest Service research study on Northern California frog habitats near the Gumboot Lake Campground on Thursday when Joseph Charles Henrichsen, 49, allegedly confronted them with an AR-15-style rifle, ordered them to raise their hands and zip-tied their wrists behind their backs, FBI Special Agent Russell Quiniola wrote in an FBI affidavit unsealed in Sacramento federal court. 

Henrichsen then allegedly forced the biologists to walk into a white camping trailer parked near the campground. Inside, Henrichsen's son Phoenix, 23, cleared space for the biologists inside while they remained bound, according to the affidavit. 

Phoenix is accused of helping confine the biologists during the ordeal, and one woman told investigators that he "kept watch" over her when his father left the trailer.

Both men were charged on Monday with kidnapping federal employees and remain in federal custody following their surrender on Friday, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of California. The father and son appeared Monday before U.S. Magistrate Judge Allison Claire, who ordered them held in federal custody. Their preliminary examination is scheduled for Aug. 3 in Sacramento, according to the court docket. 

After initially forcing both women into the trailer, Joseph Henrichsen allegedly removed one biologist and drove her several miles toward Lake Siskiyou in the employees' Forest Service Nissan Frontier. 

Still carrying a firearm, he used her phone to leave a voicemail to an acquaintance and make a call to a Forest Service ranger, according to the affidavit. "I've taken two fed biologists hostage from the Forest Service," Henrichsen allegedly said in the message.

Quiniola wrote that Joseph Henrichsen said in the voicemail that the woman was zip-tied with her hands behind her back. Joseph also allegedly threatened to use live ammunition against anyone who intervened.

Henrichsen later returned to the campground and directed the woman back into the trailer. Around noon, he allegedly removed the second biologist and held her inside the Forest Service vehicle for about three hours while Phoenix remained alone with the first woman. 

The Siskiyou County Sheriff's Office was first notified around 10:55 a.m. by a Forest Service law enforcement officer, and deputies and the sheriff's special response team reached the remote campground around noon. Using drones, they identified the trailer shortly after 1 p.m., according to a Friday news conference. 

As officers gathered near Gumboot Lake, Joseph Henrichsen used the Nissan's radio to contact authorities. Identifying himself as "Charles Perry," an alias listed in the federal complaint, the caller demanded to speak with the FBI.

"I have two biologists in my custody right now," Henrichsen said in an exchange captured in an archived radio traffic log for Siskiyou and northern Shasta counties. "... I'm requesting an FBI investigator to speak to so that I can release these hostages."

When a dispatcher asked for a phone number, Henrichsen refused to provide one, according to archived radio traffic. The dispatcher then asked how the FBI could reach him. He requested an in-person meeting and said he would listen for investigators over the radio. 

"This is Russell from FBI Sacramento, trying to reach whoever's at the campsite," FBI Special Agent Quiniola said. "Can you hear me?"

The FBI began negotiations around 4:20 p.m. and continued for roughly nine hours into early Friday. 

Archived radio traffic captured Henrichsen directing Quiniola toward an older red pickup with a camper and requested that someone approach without a weapon. Quiniola tried to persuade him to leave the trailer and meet officers near the vehicle.

"We're gonna try and drive as close as our team will let us, and no one's going to point guns at you as we drive in," Quiniola said. 

According to the affidavit, officers repeatedly ordered Joseph Henrichsen to free the women and surrender, but he refused and returned to the trailer carrying the rifle when law enforcement attempted to approach. 

The operation drew local, state and federal personnel from eight counties to the isolated campground, which is reached by narrow forest roads. The FBI deployed agents from Redding and Sacramento, along with its crisis negotiation, SWAT and evidence response teams. Its Hostage Rescue Team flew from Quantico, Virginia, to Redding aboard a Boeing 757, officials said.

Law enforcement established a perimeter, deployed drones and positioned aircraft over the forest as negotiations continued, according to the dispatch log. Radio traffic captured air crews monitoring the trailer, nearby vehicles and movement around the campsite for hours. At one point, an air crew reported seeing someone open the trailer's front door, throw an unidentified object outside and shut the door.

Around 8:20 p.m. on Thursday, Joseph Henrichsen allegedly said he had a grenade and threatened to use it unless officers moved away from a truck. Phoenix later told his father that he saw people in the trees, whom investigators believe were officers positioned near the trailer.

Shortly after 1 a.m. Friday, Joseph Henrichsen agreed to release one biologist. She walked from the trailer to the officers, and the second woman emerged approximately six minutes later, according to the affidavit. Both confirmed to investigators that Joseph Henrichsen had kidnapped them at gunpoint and that they had been held against their will.

After the women reached safety, negotiators continued speaking with the men until Phoenix Henrichsen surrendered around 2:30 a.m., followed by his father about five minutes later. 

Both defendants remain in federal custody. If convicted, they face a maximum statutory sentence of life in prison and a $250,000 fine.

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