A missing Arizona teen who was feared to have been kidnapped by his religious doomsday prepper mom has been found safe near the Canada border.
Blaze Thibaudeau, 16, was discovered in Alaska with his mother Spring Thibaudeau, who had become convinced he was the ‘key’ to the Second Coming of Christ.
The teen was located along with his sister Abigail Snarr, 23, and his uncle Brook Hale at the Alcan Port of Entry.
Police believe the teen had been flown to the border from his home in Gilbert via Idaho.
Warrants had been issued for Spring and Hale’s arrest, after family became concerned they couldn’t contact Blaze.
Missing Blaze Thibaudeau, 16, was discovered near the Alaskan border with his doomsday prophesizing mother and relatives
Spring Thibaudeau allegedly ‘kidnapped’ her son after becoming obsessed with doomsday and the Second Coming of Christ
On Friday, he was rescued by Alaska State Troopers who arrested the two adults.
They were charged with custodial interference and conspiracy to commit custodial interference in Arizona. Snarr was not charged.
Blaze was reported missing by his father Ben Thibaudeau on Wednesday.
The worried father had been granted temporary sole custody. He said his estranged wife had recently bought thousands of dollars of survival gear and cut off all communication because she believes their son has been chosen by God.
He told East Idaho News: ‘They see him as a Davidic servant (chosen individual) who plays a significant role in the Savior’s return.
‘They feel they needed to take him to an undisclosed location where he would receive his calling and understand his role in the Second Coming.
‘I fear for his safety, especially if my son is contentious, rebellious or belligerent. I fear that my brother-in-law would restrain him or do something that would incapacitate him.’
Snarr’s husband Brayden said his wife and her uncle had tried to convince him to come with them to Idaho and even bought him a plane ticket to Boise Airport.
On Monday, she called him and said she needed to go to the hospital. But when he returned to their Gilbert home he found her packing and babbling about the Second Coming.
Ben Thibaudeaus reported his son missing on Wednesday. He said prior to his disappearance his estranged wife had been stockpiling survival gear
Blaze was discovered along with his sister Abi (left) and his uncle Brooke Hale (right), who is Spring’s brother
He told the outlet: ‘The apartment was a mess. She had gone and purchased a bunch of hunting and utility camping gear from Sportsman’s Warehouse. And in utter shock, she told me that it’s time for us to leave and that I needed to go with her.’
Abi told her husband that she had purchased flights from from Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport to Idaho, where her uncle would be ready to greet them.
He also detailed how he initially went along with his wife’s outlandish claims and even stocked up on two years’ worth of food.
He said: ‘I was comfortable doing it because I think preparedness is something that we should strive for.
‘But over time, it started to get more and more, for lack of a better term, radical. It started to get more deep, and she connected with a bunch of different individuals with similar beliefs.’
He revealed the family would talk for hours about the Second Coming and that Abi even questioned him about leaving their home if it became necessary.
‘My response to her was yes, if we were to be invaded by another country or our lives were in jeopardy, I would obviously not be in Phoenix in my apartment. I would leave — thinking that’s what she meant by that.
‘But her beliefs continued to spiral down and down to the point where on Monday morning she said, “It’s time to go.”’
Blaze’s father described him as ‘your typical teenager, and all he wants to do is hang out with friends and be on his phone’, and said his son worked hard to gain a place on his high school football team and would never leave with games still to be played
After discovering her gone, he informed Blaze’s father that their ‘worst nightmare’ had come true.
Ben, who is the Vice President of International Sales at wellness company Plexus Worldwide, said his wife had brought their daughter in on her end-of-days conspiracy obsession which led to Snarr to begin stockpiling medical supplies.
Of his wife, he added: ‘She started spending a significant amount of money on food prep.
‘She was buying a lot of winter gear, even though we live in Arizona. She was buying tents. She was convinced that the saints would have to gather in the last days up in the mountains, and she was preparing for that.’
The family were members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, also known as the Mormon Church, but Spring’s religious zealotry grew when she began attending energy healing sessions.
The mom-of-two began having dreams about the end of the world which she took to be prophecies.
At the same time Hale wrote a two-page ‘last will and testament’ to his children, withdrew $50,000 in cash, and began dividing up his assets.
Ben feared that his wife’s brother could become aggressive, adding: ‘I’m very concerned about that my son is in danger and that his uncle could be the aggressor if things don’t go the right way.’
The family are members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, also known as the Mormon Church, but Blaze ‘is in no way a supporter’ of his mother’s beliefs, his dad said
He added that his son had never shown any interest in his mother’s conspiracies and he did not believe he would have gone willingly.
It is thought Spring may have signed him out of school under the premise he was being taken on a birthday trip.
‘He is in no way a supporter of anything she’s ever believed,’ he said.
‘He is your typical teenager, and all he wants to do is hang out with friends and be on his phone. He’s on the football team and has worked so hard to be on that football team. They still have games left this season. There’s no way that he would he would have gone along with it.’
The alleged abduction came after Blaze’s parents decided to separate. However, they had still been eating dinner and attending church as a family.
It bears eerie similarities to the behavior of ‘Doomsday cult’ mom Lori Vallow who was obsessed with the apocalypse and moved her children to the state to be with religious fantasist Chad Daybell.