Kidnapping victim found by Christmas tree hunters thought of her children to survive

REDDING — The kidnapped Redding woman found nearly naked by Christmas tree-hunters in the woods Sunday had skin falling off her feet from hypothermia, but told investigators she survived by covering herself in bark and thinking of her children, documents show.

The police report obtained by the Record Searchlight on Thursday also sheds more light on what led to the 25year-old’s abduction.

One suspect in the kidnapping, Johanna Knighten, 33, pleaded not guilty to attempted murder and related charges Thursday in Shasta County Superior Court, but a second suspect, 44-year-old Fred Sanderson, was apparently still on the lam.

The woman, whom police are not identifying for now, told investigators she formed a “casual friendship” in the past month with Knighten and Sanderson, who recently ended an “intimate relationship” with each other.

But the friendship went sour the week before Thanksgiving, when the victim’s new friends accused her of stealing an ounce of marijuana, 3 grams of methamphetamine, a car key and a cellphone from Sanderson, she told investigators.

Police said they responded to a call about a possible altercation between Sanderson and the victim after that, but they didn’t file a report.

Eventually, the victim moved her trailer so that Sanderson wouldn’t be able to find her again, she told officers. But when she met up with Knighten on Sunday afternoon, Knighten stopped her van at Redding Christian Fellowship and Sanderson showed up and punched the victim in the head and face, the police report says.

“(The victim) believed she was set up and that (Sanderson) either hid in the van or was pre-staged and hiding near the church,” the report reads.

Sanderson then told the victim he’d kill her and put her on the floor of Knighten’s van, pinning her by the neck for at least an hour as the two drove her toward Lassen Peak on Highway 44, she told investigators.

Sanderson told Knighten to drive down a dirt road in the Hat Creek area, where Sanderson forced the victim to take off all her clothes, but then gave her a pair of shorts back, she told investigators. He then threatened to hurt her and her children if she told officers what happened and left with all the rest of the victim’s belongings, the police report says.

“It is expected that a person could not survive in that area in the condition (the victim) was in,” the report reads. “(She) said she thought she may die in the wilderness if not rescued.”