New Delhi, July 19 -- MOUNT SHASTA, Calif. - Two U.S. Forest Service employees were held at gunpoint for nearly 15 hours in the Shasta-Trinity National Forest before FBI crisis negotiators secured their release early Friday morning, in a case that federal prosecutors have charged as the kidnapping of government workers. The suspects, a father and adult son with no prior criminal record, face charges carrying a maximum sentence of life imprisonment.

30 a.m. Friday after the two hostages were released in separate exchanges, the second roughly 15 minutes after the first. Joseph Henrichsen was found in possession of an AR-15 and claimed during the standoff to possess grenades, a claim investigators have not confirmed. Both men face a federal...