Kidnapped: The Disappearance of Christian Mckinley

By Richard A Erickson

Kidnapped: The Disappearance of Christian McKinley is a captivating and horrifying kidnapping plot that twists and turns itself from the suburbs of Minneapolis to the Canadian border and beyond.

On September 6, 2003, two men walked into the Hilton Hotel in downtown Minneapolis with an elaborate plan to kidnap a young teenager and hold him hostage for a seventeen-million-dollar payoff.

The victimChristian McKinley. The fourteen-year-old is the adopted grandson of one of Minnesotas wealthiest bankers and business tycoons.

The kidnapperstwo ex-cons, both products of neglectful and abusive childhoods, who turned to a life of crime early and havent looked back. Now they have only one thing on their drug-addled and psychologically damaged minds: scoring enough money for a luxurious retirement. But when jealousy and distrust invite themselves into the picture, plans begin to fall apart.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Jan 3, 2018
• ISBN: 9781543465648

Richard A Erickson

About the Author: Richard A. Erickson, PhD, is the father of four grown children and five grandchildren. He holds a doctorate degree in clinical psychology, a masters degree in social work, and a bachelors degree in English literature and sociology. Dr. Erickson has previously been a therapist in private practice, a school social work-er/psychologist, a professional speaker, and an af-filiated faculty member in the Graduate School of Social Work at the University of Minnesota and the Graduate School of Education and Psychology at the University of St. Thomasall three in Minne-apolis, Minnesota. Dr. Erickson also has extensive experience as a correctional/probation officer and as a therapist working with families in juvenile correctional institutions. He has also been the Teen Times columnist for Family Times Magazine, au-thor of the audio tape The Psychology of Parenting Teenagers, and coauthor of Making Sense of Ado-lescence: How to Parent from the Heart (Triumph 1995).

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Copyright © 2017 by Richard A Erickson.

Library of Congress Control Number:   2017917437

ISBN:      Hardcover      978-1-5434-6562-4

      Softcover      978-1-5434-6563-1

      eBook         978-1-5434-6564-8

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to any actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Thinkstock.

Rev. date: 11/17/2017

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CONTENTS

Chapter 1 Introduction of the Kidnappers

Chapter 2 Lifetime Addiction

Chapter 3 Kidnapper Lifestyles

Chapter 4 Christian Is Chosen

Chapter 5 Surveillance Begins

Chapter 6 Christian and Mom Shopping

Chapter 7 Purchase of Rainy Lake Cabin

Chapter 8 Cancer Research Fund-Raiser

Chapter 9 Kidnappers Arrive at the Hilton

Chapter 10 Christian Is Abducted

Chapter 11 Family Can’t Find Christian

Chapter 12 Exiting the Hotel with Christian

Chapter 13 Hotel Security Is Alerted

Chapter 14 Christian Arrives at Residence Inn

Chapter 15 Press Conference

Chapter 16 Waiting to Go

Chapter 17 Ready for the Trip

Chapter 18 Arriving on Rainy Lake

Chapter 19 First Night at the Cabin

Chapter 20 Christian Is Assaulted

Chapter 21 Adjusting to Big Bertha

Chapter 22 Johnny Travels the World

Chapter 23 The First Ransom Note

Chapter 24 The Family Is Stressed

Chapter 25 Second Ransom Note

Chapter 26 Marcia Out of Control

Chapter 27 Johnny in Maui

Chapter 28 November Email

Chapter 29 Thanksgiving

Chapter 30 Christmas Thoughts

Chapter 31 Christian Is Homesick

Chapter 32 Marcia and the Holidays

Chapter 33 Family Feeling Hopeless

Chapter 34 Jeff Carpenter Joins the Team

Chapter 35 Johnny in Denver

Chapter 36 Minneapolis Meeting

Chapter 37 Time to Die

Chapter 38 Death of Johnny

Chapter 39 Aftershock

Chapter 40 Craig Keeps His Promise

Chapter 41

For my young friend Patrick Timberlake, who gave me the opportunity to see what Christian actually looks like. Both of these young men have been people of courage, and both are survivors.

When I woke up, everything was black.

My eyes were covered. I was lying facedown on a bed. That taste. That sweet-smelling chlorine taste. I felt the uncomfortable confinement of steel handcuffs behind my back. My ankles were tied tight, as were my knees. My head and my stomach were killing me. I don’t ever recall such pain in all my life. I started to cry and call out for help. What were they going to do to me?

What was happening?

Five hours ago, I had been sitting in my room at home, playing video games, and now I was handcuffed and tied up, lying on a Hilton Hotel bed.

The last thing I remember was walking down the hallway. This guy named Johnny was going to take me to my grandfather’s room. He said my grandfather had asked to see me. The guy who walked ahead—who was that guy? All of a sudden, he turned around and slammed his fist into my stomach.

Johnny grabbed me from behind and pinned my arms behind my back. He had his hand across my mouth and pulled my head back against his chest. I was screaming, well, what I mean is that I was trying to scream. I wanted someone to hear me! No. Johnny’s large hand was his silencer.

I thought maybe I should just settle myself, and when I did, Johnny released me and warned me to be quiet.

Who were these guys? What were they doing with me? Where were my parents? Where was Grandpa? Oh god. I’d never see them again. I’d never see my family again. I couldn’t reach out and touch them. I wouldn’t be able to hug them. But I had to. I had to do something.

I tried to remember what they taught me in karate class. "Indecisiveness is a weakness," they used to say. I have no idea what possessed me. I counted to ten. My leg came up, and I kicked this guy Johnny in the groin. He dropped to the floor.

Within just seconds, Johnny was up off the floor and on top of me. My hands and arms were once again pulled behind my back and my mouth cupped by his hand. The weight of my body caused the handcuffs to close a bit, causing a good deal of pain as the metal cut into my wrists. I tried to tell him that it hurt. All he said was Shut your face, boy.

At that point, I could hear Johnny talking to the other guy, Here it is, the most important prize of our life.

As I lay in front of both men, I watched and listened as Johnny offered up a toast as both clinked cans of beer.

After the toast, Johnny directed his friend to pick up my head and hold back my braids while Johnny wound duct tape over my mouth and around the back of my head several times. I was totally immobilized, and I suddenly realized that I had no power whatsoever at determining what was going to happen next. My face was once again covered by a cloth with the sweet sickening odor of chlorine. Dizziness engulfed me as I screamed for my parents’ help. Within seconds, I again fell into an unconscious state.

CHAPTER 1

T ogether, they were a study in contrasts if size and age were considered. Johnny was well beyond middle age at fifty-four years, and he carried a large body frame at a height of five feet eleven inches. He could easily be classified as obese because of his body weight, which hovered at two hundred and fifty pounds. However, nobody ever mentioned the topic to Johnny, not even his mother. Johnny had a full head of hair, which was completely gray. He had been a chain-smoker since he was a teenager. His smoking habit was easily revealed, and assumed, by anyone coming in contact with him because of his yellowing fingers on his right hand and his brown-stained teeth.

Johnny was the louder of the two. Definitely the pushiest and most dominant. He laughed a lot in a rather obnoxious sort of way, thinking just about everything was humorous or at least something to smile about. Johnny saw most grisly situations that resulted in injury to others as funny. Any victim of an assault perpetrated by Johnny always got the same explanation: You just got in my way or I had to finish the job.

Johnny’s signature smile revealed a missing tooth in the front of his mouth, just off center. He had lost that tooth in a drunken brawl, fifteen years ago at the Loon Bar and Grill in downtown Minneapolis. As Johnny describes the incident, he ended up in jail for three days but only because his arrest happened on a weekend. He was not able to make an appearance in court to post a bond because court did not open until Monday. Johnny claimed that he was eventually found not guilty by a jury because of a lack of evidence.

Johnny was always lifting a glass of beer in celebration of one thing or another. It was clear that his mind was different from other minds, but for others, his lifestyle was less than a reason to celebrate.

Craig was the younger and quieter man of the pair. Craig was an unkempt, messy, young blond man of twenty-six years. He stood six feet tall, with a weight of one hundred and fifty-three pounds. Craig was a mere skeleton in the eyes of Johnny.

Craig, who worked out frequently and loved lifting weights, had a body that was strong and covered with tattoos. He looked a lot like so many circus workers appeared. Multiple colored tattoos were Craig’s way of calling out to the world and asking for attention. Like Johnny, Craig was also heavily into cigarettes, alcohol, pot, and any other drugs he could get his hands on. He was a chain-smoker who smoked ceaselessly.

They met over five years ago, as both were serving time in the Stillwater State Prison. Craig had just turned twenty-one years old and was in the process of being transferred out of the St. Cloud State Reformatory and reassigned to the Stillwater Prison facility.

Johnny happened to be working in the barbershop on the day Craig arrived at Stillwater. A new friendship blossomed almost immediately as Johnny shaved Craig’s head, and they both laughed uproariously about the results. Right from the beginning, Johnny took the dominant role in the relationship, and it almost seemed as though Craig surrendered himself to Johnny’s wishes and will. They became partners without question; still, there was no misinterpretation about the fact that Johnny was the man in charge of the relationship.

At the time Johnny and Craig met, both had been previously incarcerated many times because of burglaries and auto thefts, along with a miscellaneous list of other petty crimes. Even with the age difference, they were attracted to each other, and both had similar backgrounds with the legal system and, as such, were sophisticated prison residents with a criminal bond.

They were both risk takers. If they got caught in the midst of a crime, it was no problem because they were willing to do their time. Lockup did not scare either of them. Both had been in and out of juvenile and adult correctional facilities, as well as adult reformatories and prisons all their lives.

Their most recent dual activity was a stint of two years together at the Oak Park Maximum Security Prison just outside of Stillwater, Minnesota. They had been codefendants in several bank robberies, which led to incarceration. Most of their time at Oak Park had been spent together as roommates.

Both were school dropouts, and both had similar expectations about what they believed life owed them and what they were planning to see for themselves in the future.

Over the years, both had tried employment. Craig had been a barber for a short time but found that line of work boring. He tried several jobs as a nursing-home orderly but with the same results. Johnny had worked as a gas-station counter clerk, and in each instance, he was fired for stealing from the cash register. Johnny’s longest-held job was in the catering and housekeeping departments of local hotels.

He worked six months at the Marriott in Bloomington and about four weeks at the Hilton Hotel in downtown Minneapolis. The Hilton Hotel would serve as the background for future criminal activity, though Johnny was not able to anticipate that would happen. Some coincidences just happen out of convenience.

CHAPTER 2

B oth Johnny and Craig were untreated alcoholics since they were adolescents. Both had at least one alcoholic parent. Both of their mothers drank heavily and most probably were drinking heavily while pregnant with their children. Even though officially undiagnosed, there was a high probability that both Johnny and Craig were fetal alcohol syndrome–disabled at birth. Their behaviors were certainly congruent with the behaviors typically manifested by fetal alcohol syndrome seen in clinical settings. Everything repeats itself, over and over again. It was the story of both lives. Everything seemed to repeat itself over and over.

The principal symptom of the fetal alcohol syndrome disability was the fact that a person didn’t learn from prior experiences. That would certainly characterize both Johnny and Craig. Other symptoms that constantly surfaced in their tragically bleak and dysfunctional lives included poor work history, poor school adjustment, questionable social relationships, and chaotic families. These were all integral parts of each man’s whole personality and life.

Both had absent fathers, and tragically, the little exposure they had with a father figure ended up in situations of abuse. In prison, especially as roommates, Johnny and Craig talked about their parents, and both agreed that their fathers were major jerks and, unquestionably, losers. Both believed that when their time came, they would be the idyllic fathers theirs were not.

Johnny’s father was around until he was three years old. He didn’t have much memory about his father, but his mother’s stories made up for his lack of recall. His mother described, in great detail to Johnny, as often as she could, what kind of man his father had been and the abuse he had dealt to his wife and son.

Johnny had pretty much forgotten his past, but he understood the concept of subjectivity very well. He understood that his mother had never recovered fully from her marriage or the divorce that concluded it. She still carried a great deal of anger for Johnny’s father and the fact that he just up and left his wife and son to survive by themselves. Johnny never knew for sure how much of the abuse she talked about was based on reality. He frequently thought, What’s her problem? He’s been gone a lifetime, so let the jerk go! Get over it!

Even though Johnny had no memories of abuse by his father, he personally somehow turned into a tenacious psychopath. Johnny was a certified special education student. He got the label of EBD (emotional/behavioral disorder). His behaviors became bolder and more daring as the years went by.

Johnny was afraid of nothing and nobody. These were behaviors that Johnny’s mother had so often attributed to his father. She was convinced that a good whipping would realign his path. It might make him a better man than his father. But if Johnny was to believe the characterizations of his mother, he had, in effect, already become his father. Johnny was always filled with rage when his self-aggrandizing mother would, time after time, say to him, The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.

The exact opposite set of family dynamics created the foundation for Craig’s life. Craig’s relationship with his father (actually, three fathers when you count the stepfathers) was a study in the psychopathology and impact of family dysfunction.

Each of his fathers physically abused him. Craig had been dealt a bad hand in life and a tough blow psychologically. He expected to receive love from these adult males in his life. But instead, they used and abused him and still dared to use the title of parent.

All three of Craig’s fathers said the same thing to him as they hit him: This is for your own good and This hurts me more than it hurts you. For the most part, Craig understood and accepted the fact that he did ask for the beatings, or that’s at least what he came to believe. For whatever reason, he seemed to get into trouble all the time at school, then often with neighbors, and even the police. Somehow, Craig was just always drawn to trouble. Craig’s mother would often say, Craig, you’re going to be the death of me someday. She was always on the edge, totally overwhelmed by all the grief given her by her son.

Paul Camden, Craig’s third father, beat him over a period of four straight years, between the ages of ten and fourteen. The beatings were always justified in the mind of Paul as just a simple discipline regime. It was always a consequence related to a call from school or someone in the community. In the last year before Craig’s mother threw Paul out of her home, Paul had expanded his disciplinary methods to include sexual abuse.

Craig suffered immense psychological damage during his fourteenth year as a result of Paul’s continued and ongoing physical and sexual abuse.

At least two times each week, Craig was taken down to the house basement for consequences, in response to some sort of behavioral issue that had arisen at school or at home. It started out as plain old spankings and then graduated into real beatings with a board. The disciplining sessions were humiliating at first and later became agonizingly appalling.

During his stepfather’s last year at the house, a routine developed as Paul consequented Craig. Craig became more and more belligerent with his mother and stepfather, yet Craig accepted the consequences for these episodes. As a response to his defiance, Craig’s mother directed Paul to step up this disciplining of her young son.

Paul would grab Craig by the neck and, with the intensity of a crazy man, throw Craig down the basement stairs each time a session was declared. Paul would hit, and Craig would cry. Craig sobbed and screamed, but not once did his mother go downstairs to help Craig or stop Paul from being too strict.

One day, Paul pulled the sobbing Craig toward him and embraced him. This was surprisingly unique and intimate until Craig discovered what the real agenda was all about. It was on that day that sexual fondling started and eventually grew into sexual molestation. Craig was stunned and outraged the first time it happened as he screamed to himself, This guy’s a queer. Oh my god, he’s molesting me!

After the first incident of sexual abuse, Paul threatened, "I’ll kick your ass if you