Family Accused of Staging Kidnapping

A Missouri mother, grandmother, and aunt were arrested after allegedly staging a kidnapping in order to teach a 6-year-old boy about talking to strangers, police said Thursday. The boy’s mother, Elizabeth Hupp; grandmother, Rose Brewer; and aunt, Denise Kroutil, enlisted a friend, Nathan Firoved, to lure him into a pickup before tying the boy’s hands and feet with plastic bags and covering his face with a jacket, police said. The child was later taken to his home, where his aunt removed his pants and told him he could be sold into “sex slavery.” The boy was confined for an undetermined amount of time before he was untied and lectured about strangers. Firoved, the mother, and aunt were charged with felony kidnapping, felonious restraint, and abuse or neglect of a child while the grandmother was charged with felony kidnapping and abuse or neglect of a child.