Two people in Missouri have pled not guilty in the case of a six-year-old boy kidnapped to be taught a lesson about strangers.
Nathan Firoved, who carried out the kidnapping, and the boy's grandmother, Rose Brewer, waived their arraignment and pleaded not guilty, Lincoln County prosecutor Leah Askey said.
The boy's mother, 25-year-old Elizabeth Hupp, aunt, 38-year-old Denise Kroutil, and 58-year-old grandmother admitted to setting up the crime, saying that the child was "too nice." The family members enlisted the assistance of Firoved, 23, to pull off the caper.
When the boy got off the school bus last Monday, Firoved lured him into a pickup truck. During the four-hour kidnapping, the man allegedly told the child he would never "see his mommy again," and he would be "nailed to the wall of a shed."
The Lincoln County Sheriff's Office reported that Firoved also brandished a weapon, bound the boy's hands and feet with plastic bags, put a jacket over his head, and threatened to hurt him if he didn't stop crying.
Kroutil reportedly pulled down her nephew's pants while he was being held captive in a basement, and threatened to sell him intro sex slavery. At the end of the ordeal, the boy was taken upstairs and lectured by his family on the dangers of trusting strangers.
The adults were taken into custody after the boy reported the incident to officials at his school, and were charged with felony kidnapping, felonious restraint, and abuse or neglect of a child.
Brewer and Firoved are represented by attorney Charles James, who could not be reached for comment.
Hupp and Kroutil have applied for public defenders, and ate due back in court on February 26. All four remain in the Lincoln County jail on bonds of $250,000 each.
