Kidnap report was hoax, woman admits

South Jordan police said a woman who said she was kidnapped and forced to drive to southern Utah made up the story.

Now, authorities said they plan to ask prosecutors to charge the 19-year-old woman with filing a false police report.

"We just want to be clear that it's not a game," Washington County Sheriff's Lt. Jake Adams said Friday. "It's not something you can joke about or do without consequence."

The woman walked into the Hurricane Police Department on Thursday and said she had been abducted from a street in the Daybreak development of South Jordan. She told police a man hiding in the backseat of her car forced her to drive to the Hurricane area, where she spent the night at a campsite before she was able to escape and get help.

"She fabricated the whole thing," South Jordan Police Lt. Dan Starks said Friday.

The woman's story of a stranger kidnapping her prompted swift response from police. The Washington County Sheriff's Office scoured the campsite for evidence and put deputies on the streets to look for a man matching the kidnapper's description.

"We called out people for overtime shifts to track down this person that we thought was in the area," Adams said.

Under repeated questioning by detectives, the woman finally admitted to making up the story, Starks said.

"There was never a man. She drove down there solo," he said.

Police said they have no idea why the woman concocted the story. Adams said they will take their case to the Washington County Attorney to file possible charges.

"Whatever the reason it wasn't good enough," he said. "The public alarm that it caused — a lot of people were pretty worried for themselves and families that there was this person out there abducting strangers."

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