Chattaroy man faces kidnapping charge

April 20, 2012

A 53-year-old Chattaroy man was booked into Spokane County Jail on Thursday after he was found with a missing teenage girl in Cusick.
Carrie Lane had been reported missing for a week. She contacted her family on Thursday to say she was with Steven Tofte, who is Lane’s uncle by marriage.
U.S. Marshals, Pend Oreille and Stevens County Sheriff’s deputies and Spokane Police officers found the pair in a parking lot in the Colville National Forest.
Tofte told a Spokane television station that he had no sexual contact with Lane and that he spent the week trying to talk her into returning home.
Tofte, who was recently released from prison after serving an 8-year sentence, was taken into custody without incident. He was charged with second-degree kidnapping and a felon in possession of a firearm after police officers found a shotgun in his car. He also faces a burglary charge stemming from the theft of camping gear from an Eloika Lake home last week.