A Utah father and son were in custody and facing felony charges Sunday after botching a bizarre kidnapping plot when they were overpowered by the women they abducted, authorities said.
Dereck James “DJ” Harrison, 22, was captured without incident Saturday night in Pinedale, Wyo., the Sublette County Sheriff's Office said. The arrest ended a search launched after his father, Flint Wayne Harrison, 51, surrendered earlier in the day. The search had been suspended for the night when officers patrolling the road found the younger Harrison walking less than 2 miles from where a roadblock had been set up.
The men are accused of luring a woman and her four teenage daughters to a house in Centerville, Utah, and tying them up in the basement Tuesday. Both men, nabbed more than 200 miles from where police say the attack occurred, face multiple kidnapping and assault counts and other charges.
According to police in Centerville, the women knew the Harrisons and had been lured to their home for a barbecue. When the women arrived, the suspects allegedly brought them to the basement and began tying them up. The suspects, armed with a shotgun and a baseball bat, began assaulting the mother with the bat, police said.
"The girls were able to break loose from their restraints and started running out of the house screaming for help," police said in a statement. "One girl was able to call 911 on her cell phone during the commotion. The mother was also able to break free and all of them fled outside seeking help from neighbors."
Some of the girls were hit with the bat, and the mother and one daughter were being treated for their injuries, police said. The men fled in an SUV, apparently bound for Wyoming.
Police, citing family members, said the men had been using methamphetamines, and charges include possession of a controlled substance.
The motive appears to be retaliation on the mother, police said. The exact reason was still under investigation.
The elder Harrison is listed on the Wyoming sex offender registry based on an attempted forcible sexual abuse conviction from Utah in 2001, records show.
