A high school foreign exchange student was declared missing in Utah on Friday when his parents in China accepted a ransom along with a photo of the boy, police said.
Kai Zhuang, 17, who lives in Riverdale, Utah, 34 miles north of Salt Lake City, was at school when he was last seen on Thursday morning.
“Parents reported to school officials they received a photo of their child that showed he was abducted and they asked for a ransom,” Riverdale Police Chief Casey Warren said at a news conference.
The school contacted the police about the possible abduction at about 8:30pm on Thursday.
Zhuang’s host parents told police they were unaware of the student’s disappearance, claiming that they saw him the day before and heard him inside the house around 3:30 a.m.
After Zhuang did not reappear Friday morning, an Endangered Missing Persons Advisory was issued for the teenager, describing him as an Asian male 5’9″- 5’10”, approximately 150 pounds, with black/brown eyes and brown/black hair .
Kai Zhuang was reported missing after his parents in China received a note with his photo showing that he had been kidnapped and they demanded a ransom. KUTV2/YouTube
Police officials initially suspected Zhuang had been “forcefully taken from his home and held against his will,” according to KUTV.
Warren, however, later clarified that “there is no evidence to suggest she was forcibly taken from the home in Riverdale.”
An Amber Alert was never sent out for Zhuang’s disappearance because the police did not have any identity as to who might have kidnapped the teenager, his motive, or if the kidnapper knew him, his family or host family.
Riverdale Police Chief Casey Warren said there was no evidence to support the teenager being abducted from her home. KUTV2/YouTube
Police provided few details, but added that they were working with the FBI, the US Embassy in China and Chinese officials to help locate the missing teenager, as “several investigative efforts” had already been carried out.
“At this point the information we have is very limited, detectives and officers in other jurisdictions have assisted us,” Warren added. “We’ve been working hard the entire time to try to locate him and keep him safe.”
In 2022, 2,600 of the 5,800 Asian males reported missing were between the ages of 0-17, according to the FBI.
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Source: thtrangdai.edu.vn/en/
