Fifth person arrested in connection to a Vernal attempted kidnapping case

VERNAL — A fourth woman was arrested for her alleged involvement in a kidnapping case where three people broke into a man’s home and had an armed standoff with officers in May.

Lindsey Colleen Morrell, 31, was booked into the Utah County Jail on felony charges of obstruction of justice, aggravated kidnapping, aggravated burglary, forgery, and emergency reporting abuse involving imminent serious injury/death, and a misdemeanor charge of impersonating a police officer, according to the police affidavit.

The original investigation began when a man and two women attempted to kidnap the child of one of their ex-husbands on May 15.

According to police, Kaitlyn Anne Bachman, 24, Ty Lucero Whetten, 36, and Beth Marilyn Marie Schardine, 33, attempted to find the victims’ home under the guise of a social worker looking for the child.

After the three found the victims’ home, police reported that two of them forced their way into the house with a handgun, causing an armed standoff with police before the three were arrested.

Three people attempted to kidnap child with one posing a social worker, police report.

During the police investigation, detectives found that Amanda Kaye Bachman, 52, was involved in this attempted kidnapping. Bachman was already facing charges of harassing the mayor of her town.

According to the affidavit, Amanda Bachman posted several social media videos talking about the May 15 kidnapping. One video, posted on June 7, showed Amanda Bachman admitting to being a part of the kidnapping scheme, police reported.

“In the video Amanda says, ‘We were able to keep him from getting her for a year.’ This comment was in relation to the victim obtaining legal custody of his daughter,” the affidavit stated. “In the video Amanda says, ‘We had my daughter Kaitlyn my business partner and friend Beth and my staff and friend Ty say that they would go and hand (victim’s name removed) a motion to
request mediation.”

Goshen woman charged in extortion case now linked to child kidnapping attempt in Vernal

In the same video, police said that Amanda Bachman didn’t want to send Morell with the trio to get the child.

According to the affidavit, after Amanda Bachman’s arrest, police served a search warrant on her phone and found several texts and calls between her and Morell about the planned kidnapping.

One of the texts between the two women suggests they found the victim’s home in February, with the affidavit stating, “Lindsey to Amanda, (child victim name removed) bedroom light off.”

According to the affidavit, Morell called the Vernal dispatch on May 15, demanding that an officer give her the victim’s current address. In the calls, Morell told dispatch “that her lawyer was attempting to serve him paperwork and needed to know his current address.”

Police reported finding several more videos and phone recordings from Amanda Bachman’s phone of her and Morell calling law enforcement and reporting that the victim’s child was missing or was kidnapped.

According to the affidavit, one video shows Amanda Bachman and Morell claiming they found the child outside of a dentist’s office in January. The latest call to police from Morell was on June 24.

On Tuesday, police booked Morell into the Utah County Jail to avoid conflicts within the case.