Suspects charged after 2 women allegedly confined in U-Haul van in Delta

Two suspects who allegedly held two women against their will in a U-Haul van in B.C.’s Lower Mainland have now been charged.

The Delta Police Department said officers were called to the vicinity of Highway 17 and Ladner Trunk Road just before noon Wednesday for a report of a distraught woman.

When they arrived, police found a 21-year-old woman who had been assaulted, robbed and forcibly confined in a van, authorities said.

She had escaped but another woman was still forcibly confined in the vehicle, according to police.

Delta officers notified other agencies to be on the lookout for the van, which was ultimately found by Langley RCMP in Aldergrove.

Dustin Engels, 38, has been charged with two counts of forcible confinement, two counts of assault, two counts of using an imitation firearm, and one count of robbery.

A 28-year-old woman, Morgan Thompson has also been charged with a single count of robbery.

“We don’t see incidents like this regularly,” Insp. James Sandberg of the DPD told CTV News Vancouver.

“But when we do see them, we take it seriously,”

“The safety of the women in this incident was paramount to the actions taken by the police,” Sandberg added.

Sandberg said all parties involved knew each other, and that the alleged incident is believed to have stemmed from some sort of dispute.

“Because this incident was not random – it involved people known to each other – we don’t have concerns on any overall threat to the public safety,” said Sandberg

“The general public were not ever in any jeopardy in this situation,”

Both Engels and Thompson are being held in custody and are scheduled to appear in Surrey provincial court on Monday.

With files from CTV News Vancouver’s Ian Holliday