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.

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“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