{"id":217578,"date":"2026-07-18T21:54:04","date_gmt":"2026-07-18T21:54:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/two-u-s-forest-service-employees-rescued-after-being-zip-tied-and-held-hostage-at-gunpoint-nbc-news\/"},"modified":"2026-07-18T21:54:04","modified_gmt":"2026-07-18T21:54:04","slug":"two-u-s-forest-service-employees-rescued-after-being-zip-tied-and-held-hostage-at-gunpoint-nbc-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/two-u-s-forest-service-employees-rescued-after-being-zip-tied-and-held-hostage-at-gunpoint-nbc-news\/","title":{"rendered":"Two U.S. Forest Service employees rescued after being zip-tied and held hostage at gunpoint – NBC News"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Two U.S. Forest Service employees were rescued with the help of negotiators after being zip-tied and held hostage for nearly 15 hours in Shasta-Trinity National Forest in Northern California, officials said Friday.
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The two employees were conducting fieldwork when two armed people took them hostage at gunpoint early Thursday, Siskiyou County Sheriff Jeremiah LaRue said at a news conference <\/a>Friday.
The suspect, identified as Joseph Charles Henrichsen, 49, had used one of the victim\u2019s phones to make a call stating he had taken the two Forest Service employees and he had \u201clive rounds ready to [expletive] anyone who [expletives] with me,\u201d the U.S. Attorney\u2019s Office for the Eastern District of California said in a news release.
The sheriff\u2019s office received a call at 10:55 a.m. from a U.S. Forest Service law enforcement officer reporting that the employees were zip-tied and being held at gunpoint inside a trailer at Gumboot Lake, near Mount Shasta, LaRue said.
\u201cMr. Henrichsen indicated that he had firearms, ammunition, and wanted to speak with the FBI,\u201d LaRue said.
The sheriff\u2019s office sent deputies and its special response team to the location \u2014 described as a rural and rugged area \u2014 around noon and deployed drones, he said.
The FBI\u2019s Sacramento field office was contacted at 12:20 p.m. and deployed agents from Redding, a crisis negotiation team and SWAT, as well as a hostage rescue team and assets from Quantico, Virginia, said Brian Tosh, the FBI Sacramento acting special agent in charge.
Just after 1 p.m., drones helped authorities identify a trailer where Henrichsen was. Soon after, local, state and federal resources began to flock to the scene, officials said.
Negotiations started around 4 p.m.
\u201cThere\u2019s a lot that transpired between that,\u201d LaRue said. \u201cAt about 1:50 a.m., the survivors, the hostages, the two employees of the Forest Service were released, and I\u2019m so incredibly proud of that.\u201d
The first hostage came out alone, followed 15 minutes later by the second, Tosh said.
Then around 2:30 a.m., Henrichsen and his adult son, Phoenix Henrichsen, 23, surrendered and exited the trailer, LaRue said.
At the time, Joseph Henrichsen had an AR-15 and claimed to have grenades, Tosh said.
Both were arrested and charged with kidnapping of a federal employee. If convicted, they face a maximum penalty of life in prison and a $250,000 fine. It was unclear Friday night whether they have attorneys.
The employees were not identified. Officials did not detail whether they were injured.
\u201cBoth are resting and will need some time to process this experience,\u201d Tosh said.
An investigation into motive is underway. It\u2019s not clear why Joseph Henrichsen specifically wanted to speak to the FBI. LaRue said the men weren\u2019t known to law enforcement.
A slew of agencies aided in the hostage crisis including the Shasta County Sheriff\u2019s Office, the Bureau of Land Management, California Highway Patrol and the California Department of Fish and Wildlife.
Marlene Lenthang is a breaking news reporter for NBC News Digital.
© 2026 NBCUniversal Media, LLC<\/p>\n

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news AlertsThere are no new alerts at this timeTwo U.S. Forest Service employees were rescued with the help of negotiators after being zip-tied and held hostage for nearly 15 hours in Shasta-Trinity National Forest in Northern California, officials said Friday.Subscribe to read this story ad-freeGet unlimited access to ad-free articles and exclusive content.The two employees […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":217579,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-217578","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-us","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/217578","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=217578"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/217578\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/217579"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=217578"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=217578"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=217578"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}