Photo by LCSO Brianna Turnbull

Courtesy Kaden Clark-Guthrie

A 23-year-old North Platte woman was arrested Tuesday for two felony counts after she helped a 17-year-old boy escape from state custody and hid him for three months.

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Briana P. Turnbull was arrested for harboring a fugitive and aiding and abetting escape. Both charges are Class-IV felonies and she could face a maximum of 10-years imprisonment, fines of $20,000 or both.

Turnbull was booked into the Lincoln County Jail and released on a $5,000 bond set by Keith County Judge Edward Steenburg. She will be formally arraigned in Lincoln County Court March 25.

Turnbull is the daughter of Lincoln County Judge Kent Turnbull. A special prosecutor and judge will appointed to adjudicate the case.

Turnbull was a staff employee of the Salvation Army Quinn Wilcox House in North Platte, a youth facility for troubled teens.

Kaden Clark-Guthrie, 17, of Trenton, was a resident of the Wilcox House. Clark-Guthrie, a state ward, had been ordered to the Wilcox House by Hitchcock County Court after his arrest for burglary.

The pair became close, according to Robin Schaffert, Clark-Guthrie’s mom. She said Turnbull smuggled cigarettes and Flexeril, a muscle relaxing drug, into the facility for her son. After Clark-Guthrie was caught with the cigarettes and tested positive for drugs, he was to be shipped to YRTC in Kearney, Schaffert said.

Schaffert said Turnbull and Clark-Guthrie hatched a plan to run away together.

On Nov. 16, Turnbull and Clark-Guthrie left the facility together and ran away to Carthage Missouri, where Turnbull had secured an apartment.

For the next three months, the couple lived together while the North Platte police searched for Clark-Guthrie.

Schaffert said it was a month before anyone connected Clark-Guthrie’s disappearance with Turnbull’s sudden absence.

North Platte police Lt. Rick Ryan said investigators got almost no cooperation from the Carthage Mo. police department and the investigation stalled.

“We continually called them and asked them to assist,” Ryan said. “They never followed up and would not return phone calls.”

Eventually, Turnbull got wind that the police were closing in and she and Clark-Guthrie came back to Nebraska Sunday, Feb. 22, according to Ryan. Turnbull dropped Clark-Guthrie off at his grandmother’s house and came to North Platte. She was arrested Feb. 24.

Schaffert said she was angry with Turnbull and wanted to insure that Turnbull was never able to work with teenagers again.

“My son is a mess,” Schaffert said. She said he was very emotional and upset over the whole incident. He is now placed in the Boys Town shelter in Grand Island.

“I just want to see them both get the help they need,” Schaffert said.