RIVERDALE, Utah (ABC4) – One of Utah’s biggest crime cases of 2023 took police on a frantic search to find a foreign exchange student, supposedly kidnapped and being held for ransom. In a bizarre twist, detectives discovered he wasn’t abducted at all. He was a victim of what they came to learn was cyber kidnapping.
So how did they solve it? ABC4 News goes in depth with Riverdale Police for the answer, in this edition of Behind the Badge.
The call to find foreign exchange student Kai Zhuang first started with panic. Administrators at his high school in Ogden called 911 in late December, relaying word of his disappearance from his family.
“…the kidnappers contacted the family in China asking for money, if not then we’re going to kill him,” said 911 caller Alexis Salvo, who serves as the Vice Principal at St. Joseph’s High School.
Zhuang’s host family also received an alarming photo, appearing to show him in distress, and kidnappers demanding $1.3 million in ransom. It was believed Zhuang had been taken from his host family’s home in Riverdale, leaving them in a state of shock.
“There’s an energy running through you and the anticipation is ‘God, I hope they find this kid,'” said his host father, Greg Lewis.
But as Riverdale detectives began looking into it, they immediately recognized something was off. Detective Ryne Schofield with the Riverdale Police Department explained the photo had some strange features. The clothing near his right arm was stretched out while it was wrinkled and folded down by his left arm like his arm was down.
“He’s most likely taking a selfie, over the head,” explained Schofield. He said that detail started raising questions, such as, why was he the one to take the picture.
Police started searching neighborhood doorbell cameras, and found a clip of Zhuang, walking away from his host family’s home by himself on the morning of his disappearance. They knew at that point, that he left the house under his own free will and was not forcibly kidnapped.
Then searching his bedroom, his host family said detectives discovered receipts for camping gear, and other items not with him the moment he left.
Officers concluded Zhuang was camping somewhere in Utah’s mountains, pretending he was abducted. But why? Riverdale police turned to the FBI, who verified calls from Kai’s kidnappers were actually coming from Hong Kong. They explained he was likely the victim of cyber kidnapping.
“They make up all these lies making Kai believe that if you tell anyone about this you’ll spend two years in prison,” said Schofield.
Once they convinced Zhuang to give them his personal information back home, they contacted his parents in China and then played the two against each other.
“We believe they recorded his voice, throughout just talking with him. There’s technology where you’re able to input whatever you want to say and now you have that person’s voice,” Schofield said.
As the scam deepened, his host family noticed he was more reserved at home, but had no clue he was being manipulated into putting his own life at risk. His host father, Greg Lewis, said Zhuang must have been afraid and scared within an inch of his life.
So where was he hiding? Other Riverdale detectives joined the case and started scouring Zhuang’s cell phone data for clues. Riverdale Police Detective Robert Lovato told ABC4 they were looking for any information that wasn’t part of Zhuang’s “normal.” And they found one.
Five days earlier, pings from Zhuang’s phone showed Kai had gone into the mountains above Brigham City in Box Elder County. So, detectives focused their search there. They called in reinforcements from the Utah Department of Public Safety, who brought in a helicopter and a drone team.
The crews searched the area during the day but struck out to no avail. Even after, Sgt. Derek Engstrom went out on his own to search on foot.
“Knowing Kai’s background a little bit, knowing that he’s not very outdoorsy, I thought to myself ‘What would be the easiest route for someone to take like that?'” said Engstrom.
On his own, Engstrom found a simple trail that led to a makeshift bridge going over a stream. He followed that trail a quarter mile up the mountain. As luck would have it, that’s where he found the missing Kai Zhuang.
Body cam footage showed the moment Engstrom stumbled upon Zhuang’s camp. He called for him, assuring him he – and his family – was safe. What had been four days of fear, extortion and isolation was finally over.
Engstrom told ABC4 it was a great feeling to have finally found Zhuang unharmed.
“I mean, obviously, [he was] very scared. He was cold. He immediately asked if he could call his family,” said Engstrom. “He started crying.”
The rest of the search team joined Zhuang and Engstrom on the mountain, packed up his things and escorted the foreign exchange student back to the police station, where officers explained how he’d been scammed.
“In the office he just leaned his head back and started laughing, pretty much saying I’m a fool. I’m a fool,” said Detective Ryne Schofield.
His host family was grateful he’d been found. They hope people hearing Zhuang’s story are slow to judge what cyber kidnappers convinced him to do.
“You got to cut him some slack. I didn’t really feel a lot of anger, I was just like ‘Thank God, they found this boy,'” said Lewis.
For the full details of what the kidnappers said to Kai to convince him to fake his kidnapping and what police are now doing with the knowledge they gained about cyber kidnapping see the full interview below with Riverdale Police Lead Detective Ryne Schofield.
In the end, the kidnappers scammed Kai and his parents out of $106,000 before police finally found him. He immediately returned to China that night with his family who came to Utah during his disappearance.
