Do you think there should be a punishment for the Alabama woman who faked her own abduction?

Yes, there should be a severe punishment. If nothing else, to discourage copycats.

She cost society untold millions of dollars for the search which she should repay. (but that will never happen.)
She pulled police manpower from other cases likely allowing bad actors to continue their mayhem.
She hurt the faith and trust of the volunteers who tried to find her. They might not be so willing to help in the future.

At the very minimum, she should lose her social media sites so all the clicks, likes, follower, etc. she gained from this scheme are deleted.

She got lots of press from all sorts of media with her glamor photos. Guys should avoid her like the plague. (But there are a lot that won’t.)

Yes, she should be punished. For all of the reasons @LuckyGuy said.
Remember that the actor Jussie Smollett did something similar in saying he had been attacked, when he had actually paid two men to pretend to attack him?
People will be reluctant to help search for actual missing people if liars keep crying wolf.

She should be charged with a gross misdemeanor. A one year prison sentence plus a big fine should be adequate punishment.

It all depends on who she voted for!

Last Wednesday the cops announced most of the details without accusing her of anything specific. Yesterday there were rumors of mental health issues that lead to this. I feel there should be some form of punishment, but also feel I don’t know enough of the details to specify exactly what it should be. I’m just glad she didn’t walk into a school with an AR15 & leave a bunch of dead bodies behind. Until more details are revealed, I don’t have on an opinion on what her punishment should be. I do feel the cops did an EXCELLENT job on working out exactly what happened!!!

I’m a little reluctant to advocate anything beyond a slap on the wrist. People go for real missing with much less resources or attention given. We still don’t even know who some of the women, including the child, on Gilgo beach is. This is a story because the media ate it up, blasted it everywhere, and demanded the resources be used. Not that we shouldn’t look for missing people, but the real thing that will make this happen again is that she attracted the attention of the whole nation in doing whatever she was trying to do.

Yes. Influencers and other attention seekers are taking it too far, especially in this case. She knowingly called in a false report, it was intentional.
If mental health issies are involved that could change my opinion but I’m very skeptical.

I refuse to offer an opinion because we don’t know all the facts.

The chick needs psychiatric help in my opinion with what little I know about the story.

There needs to be some sort of consequence. I think let the DA prosecute her and if they come to a deal or argue she had an impaired mental state let the lawyers deal with that, but something should be done.

Can they fine her if it is a criminal trial? I always think of money changing hands in civil cases? Does she even have any money?

If it was up to me, with the facts provided, I think she should have to work off paying some of it back in some way that helps the community. Plus, go to a few therapy sessions. If she doesn’t show for the work or the shrink she goes to jail, but I would probably try to keep her out of jail if she doesn’t have a record, give her a chance to do something to pay back society and see her error.

She shouldn’t be allowed to run for president, that’s for sure.

I don’t really care. Is her offense as bad as kidnapping? Bank robbery? Poisoning someone? How does it compare to child abuse?

Warning and probation seems OK to me.

I wonder if the suggested punishments are harsher because of her race.

Yes. Unless she’s insane .

@elbanditoroso Is she Black? Funny, I pictured her white since the girl I know named Carlee is white. She’s actually ¼ Chinese, but you can’t tell looking at her. I didn’t read the article linked and just hearing about the story here.

If this was a mental health episode, then a trip to the state mental hospital may be appropriate. If it was simply her way of getting attention (premeditated) then throw the book at her.

Absolutely. Anyone that fakes a crime needs to be punished strongly. When they do that, it takes resources away from the police to look into alleged crime, resources that could be used to investigate actual crimes. If it is more “personal” such as claiming someone assaulted you just to get them in trouble then that needs even stiffer penalties.

No. She should receive mental healthcare, not punishment.

@elbanditoroso Why would you think that?

Isn’t she in her early 20s? Where would this money be coming from that you seem to think she should pay back to the government?

I, similar to @JLeslie, support therapy and court-mandated community service. She should probably receive a full psychological evaluation, at the court’s expense if she is not able to pay herself.

In general, I think it’s a slippery slope to expect people to pay for public services. She is a young adult who could have been manipulated or influenced in some way. What if she was escaping an abusive partner? There’s so much we don’t know, that we’re not entitled to know.

@KNOWITALL because historically, blacks in the south (this is Alabama, after all) have had harsher punishments than whites for doing the same crime.

@elbanditoroso Gotcha. And you may be right. I work in Alabama & MS so I’ll ask around today.

Yes and there will be. Don’t mess with the State of Alabama!

While I would love to suggest at least 6 months in jail, what would that really accomplish? Community Service for 6 months and court ordered therapy should be enough to teach her a lesson.

From a friend in Alabama: Feel sorry for her and her family. Probably would make her pay a fine but not prosecute her. Seems to me she is battling some personal issues or illness.
Not terribly mad but I do realize what she did to law enforcement, her friends, and family was wrong.

Yes, and she should have to pay for the entire cost of the investigation and search for her. People are sick and will do whatever to get attention. The public should not fund that. Jail and fines sound good to me.

If you put her in jail the community continues to pay for her.

My only hard spot with the court ordered therapy is that, by and large, it seems to be ineffective. Several of the counties around where I live started doing that for drug charges. Court ordered drug rehab. Which, if the person was truly looking for help, might be effective. But most times the druggies go to rehab, get done, go right back to doing drugs (along with all the other destructive things that go along with that – to themselves and others) until they are caught again and then they get sent back to rehab and the cycle starts again.

Therapy and rehab and all those psych things are great…if the person sees they are in a bad place and are actually looking to change. But someone that dreams up this whole abduction-scam isn’t looking for correction…she is looking for attention. Going along with therapy and then getting back to the sort of behavior that got her the most attention.

@seawulf575 Court ordered therapy for drug abuse is often ineffective. That is not her circumstance, though.

I don’t think that jail would do anything productive!!! She’s a 25 y/o nursing student who lives with her parents. She was working at a spa but got fired due to her choices. So, fining her would most likely result in VERY little restitution. She does have a bf & he appears to be defending her from internet trolls. Maybe have her donate some time in dispatch taking 911 calls. Then again, assuming that the mental issues aren’t more of the hoax, that could do MORE harm than good. My thoughts have been going in circles for the last week or so & I can’t come up with the perfect answer!!! Now, I’m back to we DON’T have ALL the details & should WAIT to judge her actions as well as her punishment!!!

@Cupcake The problem with all therapy is that it only works if you actually want it to work. Therapists do not heal you. They let you talk through your issues and guide you towards the “right” answer…the things you need to make yourself better. If you don’t see you have a problem or are unwilling to change, forcing someone into therapy will not be effective.

@LadyMarissa 9–1-1 operators/dispatchers aren’t amateurs who can do a round of community service. They’re highly trained as the work they do is critical and urgent. They not only field calls but they operate a large switchboard that involves various agencies (police, ambulance, fire).

The copycats have begun…
11 year old Florida girl falsely reported kidnapping for a youtube challenge.

@LuckyGuy When I was little, a lesson I heard all the time from my grandmother was about the boy who cried “wolf.” These people are crying wolf and when there’s a real problem, there will be doubts.

It’s like the logic of punishing drug users rather than suppliers. You can’t change the societal attitudes that make things like this happen, but the fact that this was a widely publicized excuse for news guarantees that it will continue to happen. The media are the drug suppliers in my simile, by the way.

The girls did it as a youtube challenge. No doubt there will be a tiktok challenge too.
They need to have their accounts deleted and lose their online presence for at least two years.