This Friday, a Chinese foreign exchange student attending high school in Utah was declared missing after his parents received a ransom note in China along with a picture of their son, police reported.
Kai Zhuang is 17 years old and lives in Riverdale, Utah, which is about 34 miles north of Salt Lake City, with his host parents. He was last seen Thursday morning.
At a press conference, Riverdale Police Chief Casey Warren stated that “The parents reported to school officials they received a photograph of their child that would indicate he was abducted and they requested a ransom.”
The school Zhuang attends reported a possible kidnapping to the police at around 8:30 p.m. on Thursday.
His host parents told the police that they did not know of his disappearance until they were informed of it by authorities, as they reportedly saw him the day before and heard him in the house around 3:30 a.m.
Law enforcement officials initially speculated that Zhuang had been “forcefully taken from his home and held against his will,” as stated in a report by KUTV.
Police chief Warren however, later clarified that there was “no evidence to suggest that he was forcefully taken from the home in Riverdale.”
An Amber alert has not been sent out for Zhuang’s disappearance as police stated that they do not have any possible identities on who may have kidnapped the 17-year- old, any ideas of the motive, or if it could have been someone close to him or someone who knew him.
The police added that they’re working with the FBI, the U.S. Embassy in China, and Chinese officials to help find Zhuang.
“At this point the information we have is very limited, detectives and officers in other jurisdictions have been helping us out,” Warren asserted. “We’ve been working vigorously around the clock to try and locate him and make sure he’s safe.”
After Zhuang did not appear on Friday morning, an Endangered Missing Person Advisory was issued for the teen, describing him as a 5’9”-5’10” Asian male, approximately 150 pounds, with black/brown eyes and brown/black hair.
According to an FBI report of the past year, 2,600 of 5,800 Asian males reported missing are between the ages of 0-17.
