Kentucky woman
accused of engaging in 911 hoax
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by Kim
Fickett
Landmark reporter
What began as a frightening 911 call to the Platte County
Dispatcher on Saturday night ended hours later with local
authorities learning the call was a hoax.
According to officials at the Platte County Sheriff’s
Department, dispatch received a call about an 18-year-old
Kentucky woman who had come to the Kansas City area to
be with the boyfriend she had met on the Internet.
The call to 911 stated she was lying bleeding in a ditch
along Interstate 29 near the Kansas City International
Airport. She stated strangers had abducted, raped and
stabbed her and left her in a ditch to die.
The Platte County Sheriff’s Department, along with
two helicopters from the Kansas City Police Department
and Kansas City Fire Department rescue personnel. The
search involved numerous police and sheriff’s officers,
fire department rescue workers and Verizon Wireless personnel
tracking cell phone calls.
After three hours of searching an area near KCI, officials
and rescue personnel learned that the woman had not been
in Platte County, but instead was sitting in her home
in Nicholasville, Ky.
Officials stated the woman and the local man were planning
to meet on Saturday night, because she told him she had
a ticket to fly into KCI.
When the man, along with his mother, went to pick her
up from the airport and she was not there, he called her
cell phone. It was then that she had told him that she
had been abducted. The man’s mother telephoned authorities
at 10:45 p.m.
Dispatchers text messaged the woman’s cell phone
asking if they could call her. She responded yes through
a text message.
When the dispatcher called, the woman told dispatchers
she thought she was in a ditch just outside the airport
near the 15-mile marker on I-29.
Officials responded to the scene and began the search
with helicopters flying overhead and spotlights scanning
the area.
According to a report in the Kansas City Star, Captain
Frank Hunter of the Platte County Sheriff Department,
a sergeant asked the woman, “‘Can’t you
hear the sirens? Can’t you see the lights?’”.
Halfway through the search, officials began to question
the legitimacy of the report.
“All of our cell phone batteries have gone dead,
but she is still talking on her cell phone from a ditch,”
Hunter stated.
Verizon Wireless was contacted for help and they determined
the cell phone tower she was using was located near Nicholasville,
Ky.
Dispatchers notified the Nicholasville police, who located
her address.
According to Hunter, the Platte County Sheriff’s
sergeant was on the phone with the woman when the Nicholasville
police arrived at her front door.
“She hung up immediately,” Hunter was quoted
as saying.
The officer called back and a Nicholasville police officer
answered
.
Platte County Prosecutor Eric Zahnd told The Landmark
this week he is awaiting reports from investigators on
the case, and expects charges to be filed against the
woman in the near future.
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