A Michigan teenager who went missing after claiming to have been taken by a man with a gun lied about being kidnapped, authorities said Sunday.
A Monroe County detective and an FBI agent interviewed 18-year-old Hayley Turner and "determined that the incident did not take place" last Thursday like she claimed, the county sheriff's department said according to NBC News. Police have closed the investigation into the kidnapping and are now trying to figure out why she staged the hoax.
"That's what's puzzling all of us," Ecorse Police Detective Lieutenant Gregory D. Blade told the Detroit Free Press. "We really don't know why she would do that. She may have some issues. I don't know."
The alleged kidnapping occurred when Turner left her Bedford Township home to go to a local video store. At around 10 p.m. she called her friend saying she saw a man lying in a ditch and pulled her car over to check on him. Moments later she told her friend "he has a gun" and the phone disconnected, The News-Herald reported.
Turner's car was found abandoned with the engine still running shortly after she disappeared. An extensive search was launched for the abducted teen, with Turner's picture being posted around town and police conducting a ground and aerial search.
The teen was found on Friday near a street corner in Ecorse about 40 miles from her home. The owner of a home nearby took Turner to the police who then took her to a hospital. Darrin Johnson, the responding officer, descried the victim as being "scared," according to the newspaper.
She told police she was held hostage and escaped her captor by jumping from a moving vehicle.
But police were skeptical about the woman's story. Except for a few scrapes, there were no signs of physical abuse on her body.
Turner's family said on Friday she is physically fine but has suffered from emotional problems this year, NBC News reported.
The Monroe County Sheriff's Department said it is sending a report to county prosecutors to determine a course of action.
