A 40-year-old Provo, Utah woman now faces serious felony charges after she allegedly snatched an 11-year-old boy off the street, drove him to her home, and forced him to apologize to her son for supposed bullying.
Shannon Marie Tufuga was charged Monday (March 24) in 4th District Court with child kidnapping and aggravated child abuse. Both charges are typically first-degree felonies, but the Utah County Attorney’s Office filed them as second-degree felonies, stating the reduction was “in the interests of justice.”
According to the criminal complaint, Tufuga drove around her Provo neighborhood specifically looking for the boy, identified in court documents only as KB. When she spotted him riding his bicycle, she stopped her vehicle directly in front of him and ordered him into the car.
“The defendant was driving around looking for KB wanting to confront him about bullying her child,” the complaint states. “When the defendant found KB she stopped her vehicle in front of KB’s bike and made KB get into her vehicle.”
Tufuga then drove the boy to her home without notifying or getting permission from his parents. Once there, she made the child apologize to her son. But the encounter didn’t end there. She allegedly threatened to have her husband “beat up” the boy and told him he was “lucky” she hadn’t run over his bike when she first spotted him.
After the forced apology, Tufuga drove the boy back to his own home.
The criminal complaint says the incident left the child with “serious emotional distress” and “high anxiety,” and that he has had to “significantly” alter his daily routines since the encounter.
If convicted, Tufuga faces a prison sentence of one to 15 years, a fine of up to $10,000, or both.
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