On Sunday, 33-year-old Katryna “Katie” Bell of Carson City was arrested on a second degree kidnapping charge, and this morning she appeared in court for bail.
Update:
While the initial arrest report only noted one child was found in her possession after his mother had explicitly told Bell she could not take him, there were an additional two children found in Bells’ custody who had been taken without their parents’ permission, and at least one had been forced under threats of harm according to his mother.
According to the arrest report, a fourth juvenile had been taken by Bell earlier that day, and Bell was searching for him again when she was stopped and the children were recovered.
According to the Carson City Sheriff’s Office, deputies were dispatched to the Parkway Plaza apartments on College Parkway just before 6 p.m. on the report of two missing juveniles.
For clarity as well as victim privacy, we will be referring to juveniles by randomly assigned initials.
- The first juvenile is a 10-year-old boy we will refer to as NI.
- The second is an 11-year-old boy we will refer to as BD.
- The third is a 10-year-old girl we will refer to as GA.
- The fourth is a 12-year-old boy we’ll refer to as ML.
The mother of NI told deputies her adult son had been babysitting NI when he told NI to come into the apartment. NI ran away southbound through the apartment complex on foot at around 4:45 p.m., and hadn’t been seen since.
While taking the report, another juvenile on the scene told deputies she had seen an older white female attempting to get NI to get into her vehicle at around 3 p.m. earlier that day. She said she had never seen her before and did not know her, and began yelling at her that she could not take NI in her car.
She gave Bell NI’s mother’s phone number, and according to her, Bell attempted to call NI’s mother but there was no answer. Bell then texted NI’s mother asking if she could take NI to the park, and NI’s mother said no, and that NI’s brother was on the way to babysit him.
At around the same time, 12-year-old ML was also attempting to go to the park with Bell. ML told Bell to lie to his mother and “say she had a son named Hunter” so his mom would say yes since his mother did not know Bell.
ML’s mother gave approval to Bell to take ML to the park, according to the report, and exchanged phone numbers with her.
She told me to go back to the apartments, there’s an officer on his way, because [NI] is missing too.
In an interview with Carson Now, BD’s mother Roxanne (identified by first name only for victim privacy) said she had gone to the park with BD and her infant grandson so BD could scooter at the skatepark.
She said when it was time to leave, BD asked if he could stay longer since more of his friends had shown up to scooter, and Roxanne said it was fine so long as he checked in.
“He religiously checks in, every thirty minutes,” Roxanne said. “Always.”
She said after about forty minutes without hearing from him, she and her adult son went to the park to look for him, but he was gone. She said they drove around and went to some of his friends’ houses and apartments nearby to try and locate him.
After approximately an hour and a half had passed since she’d last spoken to him, Roxanne said her son told her it was time to call 911. While she was on the phone with dispatch, “they asked me if my son was friends with [NI], and I said yes, they’re friends. She told me to go back to the apartments, there’s an officer on his way, because [NI] is missing too.”
Both Roxanne and NI’s mother said that they had gone to the park and checked the area and both advised they’d been unable to locate their children.
“He was nowhere to be found,” Roxanne said.
While other deputies began searching the area, it was suggested that ML might still be at the park, and he may know where the boys were.
A deputy located ML and ML helped them check the area. According to the report, they located Bell driving a van in the area of Court Side and Oak Ridge and stopped the vehicle.
It was later determined that after NI had run off, he’d been picked up by Bell and given a ride to the park at an unknown time with ML, Bell’s child, and the ten-year-old girl GA.
After playing at the park for a while, the four juveniles walked back to Bell’s residence with Bell’s child — it should be noted Bell does not live at the Parkway Plaza apartments, and none of the parents had ever met her or knew who she was.
The reporting deputy stated that GA had been staying at Bell’s house since school ended Friday. GA’s father did not give permission for GA to be there and stated he did not know Bell and that he’d never spoken to her before.
The deputy who stopped the vehicle reported that GA was sitting in the front seat, and NI and BD were in the back seat along with two of Bell’s children. It was determined that Bell was on her way back to the park to search for ML.
GA’s father arrived on the scene and said he hadn’t known where GA was, that she was not allowed to be with Bell, and he did not know any of the people GA was with. “He claimed he was planning on calling the Sheriff’s Office this evening if he could not find her,” according to the report.
NI’s mother reiterated that she had explicitly told Bell no when she’d asked if she could take NI to the park and that she did not know who Bell was.
While the report did not mention how BD came to be in Bell’s position, Roxanne said her son feared for his life and was taken against his will under threat of harm.
“If you ever want to see your mom again, get in the car.”
While the other children had possibly known Bell or at least had agreed to go with her even without their parents’ consent, Roxanne said that neither she nor her son had ever met Bell before, and she was a complete stranger to him.
She said after speaking with deputies, while she was on her way back to the park, she was told to meet the deputy on a side street instead.
“I pull up, and he has this lady pulled over, and I see my son,” Roxanne said. “And I’m like, oh my god, thank god. He said when he had seen her vehicle, he’d had a gut feeling and turned around and pulled her over, and when he opened the car door, he saw the three kids in the back.”
Once she made sure BD was okay, she asked him if he had been hurt, and he said no.
Roxanne said she told BD he wasn’t in trouble, but told him, “What do I always tell you? Never go with strangers.”
BD told Roxanne that he knows, and that he’d been forced.
“I said, what do you mean by that?” Roxanne said. “He told me that at first, [Bell] told him, ‘Oh, I already talked to your mom, everything’s okay, I’m responsible for you right now. If you don’t get in the car, your mom’s going to be mad at you.’”
Roxanne said BD just stood there and told her no, that he didn’t know her. He told Roxanne that while she was speaking to him, she was standing strangely with one hand behind her back.
“And then she tells him, ‘If you ever want to see your mom again, get in the car.’”
Roxanne said BD told her, “Mom, the only reason I got in the car is because I was scared, and I didn’t know if she had something behind her back.”
She said that he told her he did not know that NI was in the car, or any other children. When he got inside and the car started moving, he told Roxanne he attempted to open the car door or roll the windows down, but both were locked.
She said that BD told her Bell took them to her house where there were two other adults, a man and an older woman.
“He said while he was in the house that he tried to leave twice and they wouldn’t let him, and they said he had to stay inside, and if he wanted to outside he had to go in the backyard.”
However, Roxanne said she didn’t ask him too many questions about the other adult individuals at the sheriff’s office request, because as of publication, BD has not yet been forensically interviewed.
“I wasn’t told not to talk about it with my son, but not to talk about it too much because when he goes and does his interview at the police station, they don’t want him to be coached,” Roxanne said.
She said she hasn’t gone too much in depth with him, but enough to determine he hadn’t been harmed.
“He feels ashamed because he knows he wasn’t supposed to get into the car, but he said, ‘Mom, I was so scared, I didn’t know what to do,’” Roxanne said.
Bail hearing
This morning, Roxanne was told by another mother involved that Bell’s bail hearing was scheduled. Roxanne attended and said the judge increased the bail from $25,000 to $75,000, but right now, additional charges have not been filed.
However, Roxanne said she went to find out what she needed to do to press charges against Bell for what she’d done to her son.
She said since coming home Sunday night, he’s been distraught, and while he told Roxanne he wanted to be treated as though things were as normal as possible, he has been oscillating between being afraid, sad, and angry. He asked to see a counselor to discuss what had happened.
Roxanne said at court, she spoke with someone from the DA’s office, who said that at that moment, they were still waiting for the investigative report from the sheriff’s office, and once they had that, they would determine what new charges would be prosecuted.
“My [adult] son is concerned she’s going to get off by saying she’s mentally ill,” Roxanne said. “But she took kids, knowing they weren’t here, and admitted to taking them unlawfully.”
Roxanne also said that a picture taken at the apartments from Sunday afternoon showed Bell had been wearing a very bright rainbow-colored outfit, which had made her “stand out” to multiple witnesses. However, when the deputy pulled her over, she had changed into darker clothing, which Roxanne believes may have been in an attempt at avoiding APBs.
She said during court, Bell was crying and stated that she “was just trying to make sure that they were all getting home safely.”
“I’m just thinking, what is happening? How could you say that when you took these kids from their house? Or my son from the park? And you weren’t on your way to the apartments when they stopped you? I honestly feel like I’m in a Lifetime movie, that this can’t be real.”
Roxanne said she has filed for a restraining order to make sure if Bell is able to post bail, she won’t be allowed anywhere near her son. She said that her bail conditions were updated so that if she does make bail, she has to wear an ankle monitor and will not be able to be around children other than her own, or be where children congregate.
Posts circulating on social media warning of the kidnapping have also alleged that Bell has been seen “hanging out” at the children’s school bus stop near the apartments, but this has not been confirmed by law enforcement.
Bell’s arraignment hearing is scheduled for tomorrow, during which formal charges will be read.
This is a developing story, we will keep you updated as it develops. Anyone with information is urged to contact the Carson City Sheriff’s Office.
