October 3, 2006 11:25 p.m. EST
Yvonne Lee - All Headline News Staff Reporter
Salt Lake City, UT (AHN) - A couple is charged with second-degree felony kidnapping for holding their daughter until she missed her wedding.
Lemuel and Julia Redd told the bride-to-be that they were taking her on a shopping trip. Instead, they took Julianna from Provo, Utah to Grand Junction, Colorado, which is 240 miles away.
Utah County Attorney Kay Bryson met with Julianna, 21, and her now-husband Perry Myers before deciding to charge the parents. He told The Associated Press, "I've never had a case quite like this... It is strange that parents would go to that extent to keep an adult daughter from marrying the man that she had chosen to marry."
Myers, 23, called police when his bride didn't show up for a pre-wedding dinner with his parents.
The Redds stayed in Colorado overnight and drove back to Provo the next day. They arrived after the scheduled wedding time at The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints Temple in Salt Lake City.
Myers said the couple were able to marry four days later. Both are students at Brigham Young University. They are expecting their first child in May.
The Redds did not want their daughter to get married, but the bride will not divulge the reason. Myers said her parents' objections concerned their daughter, not him.
He said to the AP, "It really has nothing to do a lot with me. It really is some issues with the family."
Charges against the couple were filed on Friday. If convicted, they face one to 15 years in prison.
That's one hell of a way to get out of paying for the wedding!!!