(NewsWorthy.news) – A 19-year-old woman from Texas has been arrested and accused of using a child that didn’t exist to persuade police to search for her friend’s stolen vehicle.
Stacey Dashay Marie Smith called the police on June 30 and allegedly invented the child to claim that it was in the missing vehicle. Adrian Cisneros, the public information officer for the El Paso Police Department, confirmed with reporters that there was no missing child, though the car theft was real.
Smith told police that she believed her child had been abducted by the same person who stole her friend’s car. Following an “extensive search”, police located the vehicle but could not find the child. Police stated that detectives from Crimes Against Persons concluded that the child did not exist. The woman reportedly provided police with a false name for the child in an effort to find her friend’s vehicle more quickly.
Smith was arrested on a false alarm or report charge and taken to the El Paso County Detention Facility on a $5,000 bond. It is not known if police have arrested any suspects in connection with the stolen vehicle.
A Houston-based non-profit, Texas Center for the Missing, states that fewer than 1% of child abductions are carried out by strangers. The organization says that abductions by strangers are the most serious incidents, which are most likely to lead to the injury or death of the child. The Houston-Galveston region alone saw 9,531 missing child reports in 2023, according to the center.
In Texas the majority of child abduction cases relate to familial legal disputes linked to divorce and custody battles. Such cases can escalate to such a degree that they result in kidnapping or a parent taking their child when they are not authorized to. As the law relating to parental kidnapping lacks a federal equivalent, it is left up to the state’s law enforcement to handle incidents in which abducted children are taken across state lines. The situation can cause a tense relationship between estranged and divorced parents who are on high alert as a result.
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