By admin 
A father and son accused of abducting two federal wildlife biologists in a remote part of Northern California earlier this month will face weapons and assault charges along kidnapping, a federal indictment unsealed Thursday shows.
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Joseph Charles Henrichsen, 49, and his son Phoenix Jose Phillup Henrichsen, 23, were arrested in Siskiyou County on July 17 after abducting at gunpoint the two U.S. Forest Service biologists, who had been researching frog habitats at Gumboot Lake Campground, authorities said.
The pair allegedly held the two women in a camping trailer well past midnight, while Joseph Henrichsen, armed, forced each separately into a Forest Service federal vehicle for hours at a time.
The men engaged in a 15-hour standoff with law enforcement before finally releasing the two biologists at about 1 a.m. July 17, prior charging documents say.
Initially, both men were charged with two counts of kidnapping a federal employee and two counts of aiding and abetting. But the indictment unsealed Thursday adds several new charges against Joseph Henrichsen, who investigators have painted as the ringleader. It drops the abetting charge, leaving Phoenix Henrichsen charged only with kidnapping.
The new charges against Joseph Henrichsen include two counts of assault with a deadly weapon against a federal employee, two counts of brandishing a firearm during a crime of violence and one count of assault on a federal officer.
If convicted, Joseph Henrichsen faces up to life in prison for each kidnapping charge, up to 20 years in prison for each charge of assaulting a federal employee with a deadly weapon, and a minimum of 7 years in prison for brandishing a weapon in the commission of a crime. He faces up to one year in prison if convicted of assault on a federal officer.
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Phoenix Henrichsen faces up a term of up to life in prison for each kidnapping charge if convicted.
The incident was not Joseph Henrichsen’s first brush with the law. In 2022, he was arrested in Washington State after repeatedly terrorizing neighbors in a community near Bellingham with violent threats, fireworks, an assault against an elderly man and even a loudspeaker that looped allegations about his neighbors, according to court records reviewed by The Sacramento Bee and The Bellingham Herald.
He served six months in county jail and was sent for psychiatric evaluation but quickly released from a state hospital, The Bee and Bellingham Herald reported.
The two men are scheduled to be arraigned in federal court in Sacramento on Monday.
This story was originally published July 30, 2026 at 3:39 PM with the headline “Father-son duo accused of kidnapping federal biologists in CA to face new charges.”
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