Arrests made in Meadow Lake kidnapping

Two women from Meadow Lake have been arrested in connection with an abduction that was reported Wednesday in that Saskatchewan community.

On Thursday, a 36-year-old woman and a 28-year-old woman were arrested in Grande Prairie, Alta.

Each was charged with two counts of using a firearm in a kidnapping, two counts of using a firearm during a robbery, one count of uttering threats and one count of possession of weapon while prohibited.

RCMP officers started the investigation Wednesday at about 3 a.m., when they got a call about an abduction.

A woman said she had been kidnapped at gunpoint in Meadow Lake at approximately 1:15 a.m. She subsequently was released in a rural area near Barthel and called police. She had been robbed but wasn’t hurt.

The woman told police there was a second female victim with the suspects, so a search was started for that woman as well as for the suspects and their vehicles.

Grande Prairie RCMP found that woman later Wednesday. She too had been robbed and had non-life-threatening injuries.

Further investigation led to the suspects’ arrests Thursday.