Estimated read time: 2-3 minutes
This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.
SALT LAKE CITY (AP) -- When Julianna Redd's parents took her for a long drive the day before her wedding, they weren't trying to impart parental advice.
Rather, they drove her to Colorado and kept her there long enough that she missed the nuptials.
Now the Utah county attorney's office has filed second-degree felony kidnapping charges against Julianna's parents, Lemuel and Julia Redd.
The Redds told their daughter they were taking her on a shopping trip Aug. 4 and then drove her to Grand Junction, Colo., according to Provo police Capt. Rick Healey.
The bridegroom, Perry Myers, called police when his bride-to-be didn't attend a pre-wedding dinner with his parents that night.
The Redds spent the night in Colorado and returned the 240 miles to Provo the next day, Healey said. But they arrived after the couple was supposed to have participated in a wedding ceremony on Aug. 5 in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints Temple in Salt Lake City.
The couple were married in the temple on Aug. 8, Myers said.
He said they are doing well and are expecting their first child in May. Both are students at Brigham Young University in Provo.
The Redds didn't want their daughter to get married, but Julianna, 21, has been reluctant to say what happened on the drive.
Myers, 23, said he and his wife were not discussing details of the car ride but said her parents' objections were not about him.
"It really has nothing to do a lot with me. It really is some issues with the family," he said.
Utah County Attorney Kay Bryson said Tuesday he met with the Julianna and Perry Myers before charging her parents.
"One of our purposes was to see how they felt. It was their desire to proceed with those charges," Bryson said.
Bryson said after reviewing the police investigation it was clear a crime was committed. The charges were filed Friday.
"I've never had a case quite like this," he said. "It is strange that parents would go to that extent to keep an adult daughter from marrying the man that she had chosen to marry."
Lemuel, 59, and Julia Redd, 56, are scheduled to make an initial appearance in court Oct. 26 before 4th District Judge James R. Taylor.
A call made to a listing for Lemuel H. Redd at the address in Monticello, Utah, listed in court documents went unanswered Tuesday. No attorney for the Redds is listed in court documents and it couldn't immediately be determined if they had legal representation yet.
If convicted, the Redds could face one to 15 years in the Utah State Prison.
(Copyright 2006 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
