Kidnappers demanding for ransom in cryptocurrency is not a new thing and sadly as mass adoption increases, so will the rate at which it is used by bad actors to perpetrate evil increase.
This is actuall quite scary. Users able to force to deposit huge fund and maybe transfer on cex to steal money without leaving any sign of evidence at the crime scene. This is the part where crypto being used in bad way or utility. Some people probably monitoring them if the victim got some sort of relation to crypto and pick their target and plan their modus.