A teenage boy seen donning a MAGA hat allegedly went so far as shooting himself in the leg to further his kidnapping that he fabricated.
Caden Speight, 17, texted his family that he had been abducted by ‘four Hispanic men’ in a van after a shooting last week on SW Highway 484 in Dunnellon, Florida, according to the Marion County Sheriff’s Office.
An Amber Alert was sent out on Thursday for the 6-foot-tall teen. He was last seen wearing a MAGA hat, according to local news outlets.
Speight’s sister, Bailey Speight Clark, put out a plea for help on Facebook.
‘God I just want him home. I can’t sleep eat or do anything not knowing where he is and if he is safe. Please don’t stop searching or looking,’ she wrote.
‘There is still little to no information on what happened or where he could be. I don’t understand why this has happened. Just bring him home.’
He was found safe the next day.
On Monday, authorities revealed an unexpected twist in the case.
Sheriff Billy Woods announced that Speight’s story was ‘completely made up’ and that he had actually purchased a bicycle, a tent and camping gear from a Walmart in Ocala and rode off on the bike after parking his truck on SW Highway.
‘The initial details that Caden texted to his family, were proven to be false,’ said Woods.
‘Caden simply rode away towards Williston while the rest of us were left to think the worst, and my team was working in overdrive to solve this case.’
Speight shot himself using a handgun to keep up the ‘ruse’, according to the sheriff. He inflicted a non-life-threatening wound on himself and walked out on a road where other people spotted him.
Investigators later discovered one gunshot near where Speight abandoned his truck.
‘There is zero chance that Caden’s gunshot wound came from any type of assailant,’ Woods said.
Speight was not immediately charged. Since taxpayer-funded resources were used for the search it is still ‘on the table’ to press charges against Speight, the sheriff said.
Investigators have not interviewed Speight because his parents have not granted permission, he said.
Dunnellon is about 85 miles northwest of Orlando.
It happened more than two years after a then-26-year-old woman who faked her own kidnapping in Alabama was sentenced to a year in prison.