A mother, her sister, and two sons were charged by a federal grand jury in Utah on Friday with kidnapping a child and hiding them in a religious community in Missouri for more than a year.
Kimberly Dell Davidson-Drolet, 53, is accused of moving her child from Utah to Springfield, Missouri, when she didn’t have custody of the child, between January 2023 and June 2024. The people who helped her were her kids Jaxson and Dallas Davidson and her sister Kristine Merrill. All four are being held right now.
The accusation says that Drolet hid where she and the child were by using burner phones and the mail, among other things. She is also charged with carefully planning the kidnapping with the help of her family, who lied to the police about where they were even after Drolet left the state.
Before she was caught, Drolet was seen with the child at a religious complex run by a cult leader who is related to her.
All four of the suspects are charged with kidnapping and planning to do it. Drolet’s first public showing is set for August 13 in Salt Lake City. The court times for the other defendants have not been set yet.
Police from Murray City, the FBI, and the U.S. Marshals Service are all looking into the case. As part of Project Safe Neighborhoods, which aims to lower serious crime, this is being done.
