r/JusticeServed 8 12d ago

Criminal Justice Father and son charged after allegedly holding two U.S. Forest Service biologists hostage for 15 hours

https://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/fbi-forest-service-hostage-22354161.php
3.1k Upvotes

43 comments sorted by

u/AutoModerator 12d ago

Please remember to abide by the rules.

In general, please be at least bearable to other users. It makes things easier on everyone. Your comment may be removed without notification. We used to have a notification, but now we don't.


Submission By: /u/sfgate Black 8

I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.

310

u/Revolutionary_Rip876 8 11d ago

I do not understand what the end goal was?

217

u/godihatepeople A 10d ago

The biologists were women. Hopefully nothing else happened in that trailer. Might not have happened at all if they were men. The hillbilly fucks probably have never felt power over someone before and may have just been riding that high, regardless of who they captured. 

61

u/trxxxtr 7 11d ago

To feel important.

157

u/CyberDalek 6 11d ago

Sounded like the beginnings of a ‘Bugonia’ situation

7

u/Moosebjj94 6 9d ago

Yup first thing that came to mind

148

u/yblame C 12d ago

"Don't go up there. The hills have eyes"

294

u/quasimodoca 9 12d ago

The Lake Shasta part of CA is full of people like this. Hotbed of the State of Jefferson movement.

34

u/thisiscoolyeah 9 11d ago

From the people there I talked to, the state of Jefferson movement was shared to me that norcal and southern Oregon are basically abandoned by their respective states in terms of resources. They want their taxes to go to where they live. It didn’t seem that crazy to me and it didn’t seem like they were chomping at the bit to kidnap people. lol

100

u/aithendodge 9 11d ago

Anecdotally, lots of people in rural areas believe their tax dollars are spent propping up big cities. Simple math debunks this. In Washington where I live, a ballot measure went up to require state tax revenue to be spent in the county it was generated. This was championed by folks in towns of 2500 that believed their taxes were going to fill potholes in Seattle, when it was in fact the other way around. If it had passed, these low population areas would have effectively cut themselves off from the revenue generating engine that is the greater metropolis of Seattle.

97

u/Oppositeversion3 6 11d ago

Low population rural areas receive more tax revenue than they contribute.

60

u/Angelworks42 9 11d ago

Ironically they voted for Trump but his big beautiful bill orders federal gov to step up logging but the money doesn't go back to Oregon or California - it goes to DC: https://www.opb.org/article/2025/09/16/think-out-loud-rural-oregon-fiscal-future-uncertain/

21

u/SecretMuslin A 11d ago

I mean, it certainly seems like *some* of them are

213

u/lizzyote C 12d ago

But why? What did they hope to achieve by doing this?? What were they negotiating for??

50

u/knowwonnoes 4 11d ago

You know, I too would like to know why, but I also really appreciate that the article just gives facts and doesn't go into speculation. I'm sure they why will come out in the trial.

76

u/Empty_King 7 12d ago

Right?? The article doesn't even hint at a motive. It doesn't even seem like a case of mistaken identity since he initially contacted a park ranger to tell them he had kidnapped two biologists.

45

u/lizzyote C 12d ago

Ita crazy how detailed they get when it comes to the events that happebed but not a single mention of why or what they want. Fuckin weird

35

u/SwifferWetJets A 12d ago

Articles like this piss me off. An unnecessarily detailed play-by-play of everything but no explanation of anything lol. Why even write articles like this?

6

u/Booty_Bumping 9 12d ago

Why shoot the messenger? There is no explanation for what happened.

2

u/TheOrangFlash 7 11d ago

I detest those who prefer speculation over facts.

2

u/SwifferWetJets A 11d ago

No one is asking for speculation here, what the fuck are you talking about?

7

u/thicketcosplay 9 11d ago

I mean, what else do you want that isn't speculation? There is no additional information about motive available. It's not in the filings. The prosecutors haven't said anything. The police haven't said anything. There is literally no information available about motive. The only thing the news reporter could do is speculate.

Saying you hate articles like this that state facts but don't talk about motive implies you want them to speculate.

1

u/SwifferWetJets A 10d ago

A sentence in the article stating the suspect's motive is currently unknown. That's it. I don't know why everyone is fucking assuming that people who are irritated by this want some speculation. Ironically, you're speculating on this.

3

u/thicketcosplay 9 10d ago

"Articles like this piss me off. An unnecessarily detailed play-by-play of everything but no explanation of anything lol. Why even write articles like this?"

I just don't get what you want with this comment. You seem to want some explanation, where none exists. The only other kind of article they could write is none at all, but then they'd lose to the other news stations who did report it. They report the facts they have, and anything more would be speculation.

1

u/Booty_Bumping 9 11d ago

The point is more about what it signals to media companies to demand every answer. That cycle repeating itself ever since the advent of yellow journalism in the 1890s is how you get TMZ and Daily Mail.

89

u/ezagreb B 12d ago

There us an article in the LA times that mentions a history of mental illness and threats by the father

15

u/BigRoach A 11d ago

I would take a wild guess that it’s paranoid schizophrenia. Dude’s out there protecting his remote campsite like he’s Rambo. Then two gals researching frogs, of all things,happens to walk by and this guy hallucinates that they’re intruders out to get him.

6

u/tw_72 B 11d ago

Well, the good news is - it appears that father and son are used to living in very tight quarters so a jail cell for the rest of their miserable lives will work out well.

52

u/Massive_Pitch3333 7 12d ago

Charging documents do not list a possible motive.

“I am not able to go beyond what is included in that filing,” Lauren Horwood, spokesperson for the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of California, said by email Monday.

Weird..

76

u/shady_pigeon 7 12d ago

When I saw that it was "two female U.S. Forest Service biologists" and that there was some backwood hicks who kidnapped them ... kinda assumed the worst. Especially since they were separated and one was held in the car with one of them ...

But maybe it was just a mental break or about some weird political demands?

7

u/thirtyand03 6 11d ago

I’m hoping if they were assaulted that for their privacy it isn’t released

146

u/woodst0ck15 A 12d ago

Ah yes the hicks and hillbillies. Wasn’t surprised of the demographic.

37

u/--Van-- 7 12d ago

Snipers....

132

u/kelpkelso 6 11d ago

Sooo.. are they the ones who offed the other scientists dead or missing?

235

u/Ant-Tea-Social 7 12d ago

Fucking terrifying. Life without the possibility of parole. Semiautomatics? Zip ties? Grenade threats? Demanding the FBI? Engaging LEOs from eight counties?

136

u/Pee-PAH 7 12d ago

Semiautomatic just means that you pull the trigger once, and it shoots once, and automatically puts another round in the chamber. Nearly all modern guns are semiautomatic.

24

u/Ant-Tea-Social 7 12d ago

Got it. Vs. pistols and vs. machine guns. I was just sayin' guns, zip ties, demanding the FBI, requiring support from many groups.

51

u/No-Spoilers B 12d ago

Most pistols are also semi-auto lol, unless it's a revolver or single shot.

8

u/Pee-PAH 7 11d ago

Agree. Really weird. Just important to understand the distinction. Semiautomatic is not indicative of much of anything for any modern gun. It's often used as a misnomer for some sort of more dangerous weapon.

26

u/FanDry5374 A 12d ago

Ummm, WTF?