YOUR AD HERE »

School: Only one suspect in kidnapping plot attends Basalt High

Scott Condon
The Aspen Times
Aspen, CO, Colorado

BASALT – Four boys facing possible criminal charges in an alleged kidnapping and beating plot against another youth live in the Basalt area, but only one of them attended Basalt High School, authorities said last weekend.

Adriana Hire, assistant principal of Basalt High School, said Sunday she had learned that only the young man identified by police as the prime suspect in the kidnapping plot was attending the school.

“That was a very short period of time,” Hire said.



Hire said none of the other three suspects in the case is currently a student. She said she was prohibited by school policy from discussing if any of the three students previously attended Basalt High School. Authorities could offer limited information about the suspects because they are juveniles.

A Basalt Police Department spokesman said Friday that all four kids attended Basalt High School. Hire said she wanted to correct that information because it could affect perceptions of the high school.




Roaring Fork School District Superintendent Judy Haptonstall said Friday that no disciplinary action is taken against any student in an alleged criminal case until charges are filed and school officials have a chance to assess the case.

Police said that the 15-year-old prime suspect in the case confessed last week that he and his three accomplices planned to lure another man into Arbaney Park in Basalt, beat him with baseball bats, bind him and dump him near Ruedi Reservoir. They planned to “take him out into the woods and let him starve to death,” a police report said.

Parents of some of the boys turned over information about the alleged plot to the Eagle County Sheriff’s Office and Basalt Police Department. No kidnapping or assault took place. The parents found a hand-drawn map of Arbaney Park and notes that indicated something was going to happen, suspecting it was a drug deal, police said. Investigators with Eagle County and Basalt said they uncovered the real plot by talking to juveniles and getting an alleged confession from the boy they identified as the prime suspect.

That boy was taken into custody last week for violating probation on another matter, authorities said. No charges have been filed yet against any of the boys in the alleged kidnapping case.

scondon@aspentimes.com