Three people, Brittney Jessup, Jared Daricek, and Zachary Olmsted, are under arrest in connection with a bizarre kidnapping that occurred last week in Yavapai County.
On September 4, 2019, 27-year-old Brittney, from Prescott was arrested on charges of Assault, Kidnapping, Endangerment, and Possession of Cocaine. On September 6, 2019, 34-year-old Jared, from Phoenix was arrested on charges of Assault, Kidnapping, and Endangerment. Zachary, age 33, from Glendale, was also arrested on September 6, 2019, and charged with Assault, Kidnapping, Endangerment, Theft, and Possession of a Controlled Substance.
On September 3, 2019, Brittney, and two men left her home in Diamond Valley outside of Prescott, Arizona, intending to drive to Phoenix. They were in a black 2013 Chevy Sonic. On the way, they stopped at the Rock Springs Café off I17 to use the restroom. The men went inside while Brittney waited outside. When the men returned, they saw Brittney seated in a white 2015 Ford Fiesta with Jared in the driver’s seat and Zachary seated in Brittney’s vehicle. The 2 male victims noticed all their personal belongings were gone. Zachary told the victims to get inside the black vehicle and if they did not cooperate, they would not get their belongings back and ‘something would happen to Brittney.’ The victims were told that Brittney owed them money.
As the vehicles drove away just before 1:00 p.m., one of the victims who was seated in front attempted to call 911 and this caused suspect Zachary to assault him to prevent the call. The other victim, seated in the back, began kicking Zachary. As this point, the front seat victim jumped out of the moving vehicle followed by the victim in the back seat. A passerby who saw both victims jump from the moving vehicle on an I17 onramp was able to capture a cell phone photo of both vehicles. One of the victims sustained non-life-threatening serious injuries and was transported to a Phoenix area hospital with multiple skin lacerations and head injuries.
The suspect vehicles had fled the scene.
Using the witness photo, detectives were able to obtain license plates and initially traced the black Chevy back to Brittney’s home on Diamond Court in Diamond Valley. Both the vehicle and Brittney were located the following day. Brittney admitted involvement but would not elaborate except to say the situation involved a ‘drug deal gone bad.’ She refused to provide names of the other 2 suspects and would not cooperate further. Detectives noted it was apparent Brittney had full knowledge of the intent to ‘kidnap’ the 2 victims and played a role in arranging the confrontation at the Rock Springs Café. A search warrant was served at Brittney’s home resulting in the seizure of heroin and drug paraphernalia.
Detectives then tracked the white Ford to a home in Phoenix. The registered owners explained the car was being used by their daughter who then admitted she had loaned the car to Jared because he needed to pick-up a friend in Black Canyon City.
Both Jared and Zachary were eventually found and admitted involvement. The victim’s stolen property was recovered from Zachary’s home. Zachary was also in possession of 2.5 grams of meth at the time of his arrest.
All 3 remain in the Camp Verde Detention Center with the following bonds – Jared at $22,000, Brittney at $7500, and Zachary at $30,000.