Harford County (Map, News) - A Baltimore County woman faked her own kidnapping to explain injuries she suffered in a domestic assault, Harford County authorities said Friday.

The woman, 22, sent police on a two-hour manhunt through Harford County Wednesday after reporting she’d been carjacked, kidnapped and left in her trunk.

She had apparently locked herself in the trunk and fabricated the kidnapping story to explain her injuries, police said.

But she won’t be charged with filing a false report because of the injuries she suffered and her distress, police said.

“In these kinds of cases, you have to look at why she filed the false report and whether charging her would do more harm than good,” said Sgt. Dave Betz, a Sheriff’s Office spokesman.

The woman’s name is not being released because of the domestic assault, being investigated by Baltimore County police, Betz said.

In that case, police arrested a 22-year-old Perry Hall man early Thursday and charged him with second-degree assault, said Cpl. Mike Hill, Baltimore County police spokesman.

Around 9:15 Wednesday, a friend of the woman received a text message claiming the victim had been carjacked and locked in her trunk by a 6-foot-tall, 250-pound white man in front of the Festival at Bel Air shopping center on Route 24, Betz said.

Tracking the victim’s cell phone, investigators found her in her car’s trunk at Friends Park in Forest Hill, suffering from minor head injuries, he said. She was treated for her injuries at Upper Chesapeake Medical Center in Bel Air.

Police searched for a kidnapping suspect more than two hours, using a Sheriff’s Office K-9, a state police bloodhound and the state police aviation unit. But detectives interviewing the victim noticed holes in her story, and she recanted.

msantoni@baltimoreexaminer.com

Comments from Examiner Readers

10:40 AM MST on Sun., Apr. 6, 2008 re: "Cops: Woman faked Harford kidnapping to cover assault"

Examiner Reader said:
I just arrested a women the other day for domestic violence, so it is not a oneway street.

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9:57 AM MST on Sun., Apr. 6, 2008 re: "Cops: Woman faked Harford kidnapping to cover assault"

Reader said:
She is like a bird, and did not know where her home was.

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9:34 AM MST on Sun., Apr. 6, 2008 re: "Cops: Woman faked Harford kidnapping to cover assault"

Reader said:
Hey, I am the man who is abused. You just sit back and do nothing for the man. It is a two way street.

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9:31 AM MST on Sun., Apr. 6, 2008 re: "Cops: Woman faked Harford kidnapping to cover assault"

Examiner Reader said:
There are homes for abused women, you don't need money.

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12:08 PM MST on Sat., Apr. 5, 2008 re: "Cops: Woman faked Harford kidnapping to cover assault"

Grace said:
10;50 You are correct. It takes money

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10:50 AM MST on Sat., Apr. 5, 2008 re: "Cops: Woman faked Harford kidnapping to cover assault"

Examiner Reader said:
People put them selfs in this situation, the police don't put them there. Grace if you had half a mind you would know that most domestic violence cases are not reported because the women is scared or she is just to stupid to know she is being abused. I'm just tired of women not taking up for them selfs, at some point the person doing the abuse will be asleep or gone just leave, it don't take a rocket scientist.

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10:22 AM MST on Sat., Apr. 5, 2008 re: "Cops: Woman faked Harford kidnapping to cover assault"

Grace said:
If the police did their job and stopped whining, this would have been over and less tax money wasted.

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9:46 AM MST on Sat., Apr. 5, 2008 re: "Cops: Woman faked Harford kidnapping to cover assault"

Examiner Reader said:
Some women are just stupid, If someone is beating you, you just leave. The police get things like this all the time. I hate when a women call the police than you arive on scene and they say I don't want him charged because he's a good man. I would like to say call me when your other eye is black and blue or your dead. She should be put in jail and made to payback all the money that was spent investigating her so called kidnapping.

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6:34 AM MST on Sat., Apr. 5, 2008 re: "Cops: Woman faked Harford kidnapping to cover assault"

Examiner Reader said:
Charge her!

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5:04 AM MST on Sat., Apr. 5, 2008 re: "Cops: Woman faked Harford kidnapping to cover assault"

Examiner Reader said:
She cost the county and the State alot of Money for a lie. She should have been charged!!!!

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12:32 AM MST on Sat., Apr. 5, 2008 re: "Cops: Woman faked Harford kidnapping to cover assault"

johnn said:
there is still no reason to lie,if you are a victim then say so,why all thease dramatics

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