Randall Hopley’s mother knew it was only a matter of time before her son was arrested.
“I was pretty sure he would be caught by Monday,” Margaret Fink, 70, told The Province from her Fernie home Tuesday morning. “I don’t think he had his car and he had no groceries.”
Hopley, 46, has been the subject of an intense manhunt since three-year-old Sparwood boy Kienan Hebert was abducted from his home on Sept. 7.
The little boy was returned to his home five days after his parents made an emotional appeal to Hopley in a televised interview.
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Hopely was arrested at a gravel pit near the B.C.-Alberta border at about 10 a.m. Tuesday after being tracked by a Kelowna RCMP canine unit.
He was transported back to Sparwood where he remains in police custody.
Fink said she knew her son had not gone far from home.
Reached at her Fernie residence shortly after Hopley was taken into custody, Fink said she is relieved and hopeful her son can now get the help he needs.
“He’s a survivor,” she said, of her son who may have been hungry and cold from being on the lam.
Fink believes Hopley abandoned his old brown Toyota Corolla during his time running from the law.
The upset mom also said she would be visiting her son in jail.
“I’m waiting for somebody to take me in to see him,” she said. “I want to make sure he is okay.
“I’m very happy he’s here. He didn’t give a fight,” she added of the arrest.
“He had nowhere to go.”
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