A Man Has Been Charged With Kidnapping a Boy as Part of a Sex-Trafficking Hoax

Felony kidnapping charges have been laid against a man from Troy, Mo., following an incident on Monday in which a 6-year-old boy was kidnapped at the behest of family members.

The boy’s aunt, 38-year-old Denise Kroutil, asked her 23-year-old co-worker, Nathan Wynn Firoved, to kidnap him in what appears to be an elaborate hoax to teach the child about the dangers of trusting strangers, according to a Lincoln County Sheriff’s Office press release.

Firoved waited for the kid to walk home from school and then lured him into a pickup truck, police say. Once the boy was in the truck, Firoved allegedly told him he would never “see his mommy again” and would be “nailed to the wall of a shed.”

According to the Sheriff’s Office, at this point the boy began to cry and the suspect showed him a handgun and threatened to hurt him if he did not stop. When the boy could not stop crying, Firoved bound the boy and covered his face with a jacket.

The suspect then drove to the boy’s house and left him in the basement, where Kroutil allegedly removed the victim’s pants and told him he could be sold into “sex slavery.”

The victim remained in the basement until he was unbound and told to go upstairs where his family lectured him about the danger of going with strangers, say police.

The boy’s family was in cell-phone contact during the entire incident.

When the police investigated the incident, the family told them that they were trying to teach him a lesson and believed they did nothing wrong.

The aunt has also been charged with felony kidnapping, along with the boy’s grandmother Rose Brewer, 58, and his mother Elizabeth Hupp, 25, who both agreed to the plan.

All four suspects remain in jail on a $250,000 bond.

The boy has been placed in protective custody.