A recent client of Wilderness Quest, an outdoor-based program that treats problematic behavior, is accused of kidnapping two Cortez women at knifepoint in a failed robbery attempt Monday.

At about 7:35 Monday night, a Cortez mother and daughter reported to police that a masked man had jumped into their vehicle in the parking lot at Gordy’s restaurant, 801 E. Main St., and held them at knife-point, said Cortez Police Chief Roy Lane.

"He wanted their money and their ATM cards," Lane said. "They told him they had neither."

The masked man reportedly told the woman driving to turn right on Main Street heading east. When the trio came up on the Best Western Sands Motel, he told them to pull into the parking lot, according to Lane. Then, after emptying their purses and finding no money, he jumped out of the vehicle, Lane said.

Neither woman sustained injuries during the incident and nothing was known to be stolen, Lane said.

The two women went directly to the police station to report their frightful encounter. Police promptly began searching for the perpetrator.

"We looked for him last night (Monday) and got some information that they were possibly staying at the Aneth Lodge in room 10," Lane said.

Police contacted two individuals in the room, Leo Ladefian and 18-year-old Timothy Emberson of Hawaii, but did not have anything to substantiate an arrest warrant that night.

However police received a break in the case in the early-morning hours on Tuesday.

"His motel mate called us during the night at about 2 in the morning and reported it had been Emberson that had done the armed robbery," Lane said.

"We picked up Emberson this morning (Tuesday) and he did tell us he was the one they were looking for."

The knife recovered as the alleged weapon had a seven-inch blade.

Emberson was arrested and booked into the Montezuma County Jail and charged with two counts of first-degree kidnapping, two counts of aggravated robbery, two counts of criminal attempt and two counts of menacing, Lane said.

He was still being held there Wednesday afternoon, according to a spokesperson at the jail.

The two women were not acquainted with Emberson and were not targeted for any particular reason, Lane said. "It was very random."

Larry Wells with Wilderness Quest of Monticello, Utah, confirmed that Emberson was currently in the Four Corners area because of the program but said the suspect was no longer a part of the organization at the time of the alleged crime.

"He left on Feb. 10," Wells said, adding that there were no program supervisors in Cortez. "We’re a wilderness-based program out of Monticello and our operation is in the field," he said.

Emberson was part of an adult program that provides substance-abuse treatment by putting individuals through intensive wilderness living aimed at changing their problematic behavior.

"Wilderness Quest is a program of love and compassion and a desire to help people take a different path," according to the organization’s web site.

"The adults come here voluntarily with the understanding that they’re here to get sober and work the 12-step program," Wells said.

The program lasts six to nine weeks in the field, with a family component of four days.

"If during the program, an adult demonstrates that they are not really here to work the program. . . then they are discharged from the program," Wells said.