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A 37-year-old North Carolina woman was arrested after allegedly faking her own murder and making anonymous reports to police and friends.. This was reported by the Franklin Police Department in a press release.
Margaret Sweeney, known as “Maggie,” was arrested Monday for making a false report to a police station, making a false report of death or serious injury by telephone, and obstructing authorities.
Sweeny’s actions “caused our department, as well as other departments, many hours of work that could have been spent on other matters,” police said.
According to the arrest warrant obtained by NBC News, Sweeney used an app to hide her identity and send text messages to her friend and DSS agent, claiming she had been bludgeoned to death with a tire iron.
The woman was first reported missing Friday, when Franklin police issued an alert asking for help locating a brown-haired, brown-eyed woman.
The next day, police posted an update on social media saying: “Sweeney has been located in a neighboring town and is safe.”
Numerous people posted on the Franklin Police Department page saying they were glad Sweeney was found.
The arrest warrant says police spent a total of 75 hours searching for Sweeney and investigating the case.
The woman was released with a written promise to appear in court on September 7.according to Chief Devin Holland of the Franklin Police Department, who added that he did not have an attorney at the time of his arrest.
Holland added that Sweeney was found in a local park and said that she “does not have a consistent place of residence.”
It was not immediately clear how much jail time she could face if convicted, if she has prior convictions or if she currently has an attorney representing her.
The incident comes a month after Carlee Russell, 25, a nursing student from Alabama, was charged with two misdemeanors (false reporting to law enforcement and falsely reporting an incident) after admitting to lying about her kidnapping. .
He called 911 on July 13 to report a small child was on the road. She Russell then disappeared for 49 hours and, when she returned on July 15, she told Hoover police officers that she had been kidnapped.
Later that month, Alabama authorities arrested and charged Russell with two misdemeanors for falsely claiming she had been kidnapped.
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