Orem police are going Hollywood to aid in the manhunt for a tattooed prison parolee who held an 11-year-old girl hostage for five days in the dusty Garfield County wilderness.
Lt. Bob Conner said Wednesday investigators are hoping crime-stopper television show "America's Most Wanted" will soon feature Frederick S. Laird, who is on the lam after abducting his cousin, Chelsea Lund, from a street near her Orem house."We hope (the show) will look into doing a story to get more public awareness on the story," Conner said.
Lund was found safe before dawn Tuesday in St. George and arrived home at 9:15 p.m. Tuesday to a crowd of nearly 100 people cheering for her safe return.
Laird, who served 13 years in a Colorado prison for auto theft, reportedly told the frightened girl he would slice her with a knife if she called anyone after he kicked her out of his Nissan Sentra.
Police said Lund, fearful Laird
would return to claim her, hid behind a wall for a while before walking to a Conoco station to use a phone. She then called her mother in Orem.
"He really had her scared," said Lt. Karl Hirst. "She was afraid of sleeping."
Meanwhile, additional patrols have been assigned to Orem streets surrounding the Lund home to ease worries that Laird will return undetected.
While driving back from St. George, investigators asked Lund, accompanied by her mother, Dea, to point out areas around Cedar City she may have been taken by Laird.
At one point, Hirst said, Lund became physically ill at the recollection of her ordeal.
Police believe they have identified a Garfield County cabin Laird broke into after the third day on the road. The first two nights were spent at a secluded area in the compact car.
Lund also told police that Laird was binging on junk food and drinking large amounts of alcohol. He didn't feed her much during the time on the road and allowed her to take a sponge bath once, they said.
Investigators planned to interview Lund today about a possible motive for the kidnapping and where Laird may be hiding. It will be the first chance police have been given to ask extensive questions about the abduction.
People whom Laird knows in Las Vegas have been contacted by police and informed that the 37-year-old is a fugitive. Law enforcement agencies in surrounding states also have been given a description of the man, who is clean-shaven and completely bald.
A handful of tips have trickled into a hotline hooked up by police for the investigation.
Few leads have given solid information about where Laird may have gone after leaving St. George, Conner said.