UPDATED: Riverdale police searching for Chinese exchange student last seen Thursday
Photo supplied, Riverdale Police Department
Chinese exchange student Kai Zhuang, 17.RIVERDALE — Riverdale police are seeking the public’s help following a possible abduction.
KSL reported Friday that police had issued an endangered/missing person advisory for Kai Zhuang, 17. The report states that Zhuang is a foreign exchange student who was last seen at 3:30 a.m. Thursday.
Chief Casey Warren held a press conference Friday afternoon, saying Riverdale police received a report of a kidnapping at 8:30 p.m. Thursday.
“Officers were contacted by the high school the foreign exchange student was attending and they reported they were contacted by the student’s parents in China,” Warren said. “The parents reported to school officials they received a photograph of their child that would indicate he was abducted and they requested a ransom.”
Warren said officers responded to the home of the host family that Zhuang was staying with and that the host family was unaware he was missing from the home and reported hearing him in the early morning hours.
“There’s no evidence to suggest he was forcibly taken from the home in Riverdale,” he said. “Riverdale Police Department has been working with the FBI, the U.S. Embassy in China and Chinese officials in an effort to locate the missing juvenile.”
Zhuang is listed under an Endangered Missing Advisory. Warren added that there was an attempt to put out an Amber Alert for Zhuang, but an Amber Alert requires a listed suspect.
“At this point, the information we have is very limited,” Warren said. “Detectives and officers in other jurisdictions have been helping us out and we’ve been working vigorously around the clock to try to locate him to make sure he’s safe. We’re hoping some of these other efforts that we have in place investigatively will lead to his location and getting him home safely.”
Zhuang is described as 5 feet, 9 inches tall and weighing 150 pounds with brown hair and brown eyes. He also speaks broken English.
Anyone with information about Zhuang’s whereabouts may call the Riverdale Police Department at 801-394-6616 or Weber County dispatch at 801-395-8221.