EAU CLAIRE, WI. (THECOUNT) — Tyler Brand, 25, and Khvyen Vhasenglu, 36, are behind bars after a 17-year-old boy claims he was abducted and held against his will until escaping his captors by darting inside an Eau Claire Hobby Lobby store.
Eau Claire police say they were called to Golf Road Hobby Lobby in Eau Claire on reports of a distraught boy. Upon arrival investigators found the young man “visibly shaken” claiming he had been abducted by two men. The boy’s parents reported him missing on March 22.
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Police quickly located Brand, a registered sex offender and Vhasenglu in the same parking lot based on a vehicle description provided by the victim.
According to police, Brand met the boy on social media and then in person on March 21 offering him lodging at his residence in Oshkosh. After several days, the boy informed Brand that he no longer wished to remain at the residence and wanted to return to his own home, at which point the suspect refused.
“The boy told Brand he wanted to go home, but Brand would not let him,” reports WQOW.
The two remained in eastern Wisconsin for several days until meeting up with Vhasenglu.
The suspects informed the boy they were transporting him to Menomonie. On their way, they stopped in Eau Claire. That’s when the boy made his escape.
Brand was arrested by Eau Claire police for a felony DOC warrant, possessing meth with the intent to deliver, possessing psilocybin, possessing THC and possessing drug paraphernalia.
Vhasenglu was arrested for possessing meth with the intent to deliver, possessing psilocybin, possessing and intending to deliver schedule IV drugs and possessing THC.
Curiously, neither suspect is facing abduction charges in the case.
The boy was reunited with his parents on March 25.
Developing.
Anyone with possible information on the case should contact police at 911.
Geo quick facts: Eau Claire is a city in Chippewa and Eau Claire counties in the west-central part of the U.S. state of Wisconsin. Located almost entirely in Eau Claire County, for which it is the county seat, the city had a population of 65,883 at the 2010 census, making it the state’s ninth-largest city – Wikipedia.
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