Reported suicide of convicted sex offender was a hoax, Ohio cops say. 3 now charged
Three people are facing felony charges after Ohio authorities said they made false reports about a drowning in August.
Officials said they believed the trio staged the scheme to help a 40-year-old convicted sex offender from New Matamoras avoid police, WTRF reported.
Authorities called the multi-agency response “a ridiculous waste of time and resources,” according to the news outlet.
On Aug. 25, a 28-year-old New Matamoras woman and a 43-year-old Steubenville man called 911 to report seeing a man jump into a Friendship Park lake, triggering search and rescue efforts, The Herald-Star reported.
The 40-year-old left a suicide note for the pair to give to police, the outlet reported.
“As the day went on and we started to get some information, we began to question whether or not if anyone had actually went into the lake,” Jefferson County Sheriff Fred Abdalla Jr. told WTOV.
“These alleged witnesses to this alleged drowning sat there and watched us,” the sheriff told the outlet. “We wasted tons of time and effort away from our families all over a bunch of crap.”
The 40-year-old man was found days later in East Liverpool, the Herald-Star reported.
The New Matamoras man was charged Oct. 2 with tampering with evidence, inducing panic and making false alarms, according to indictment documents.
The two people accused of reporting the hoax were charged with inducing panic, making false alarms, obstructing justice and falsification, court records show.
All three are due back in court Oct. 9, according to court records.
New Matamoras is about a 150-mile drive southeast from Columbus.
This story was originally published October 4, 2024 at 11:10 AM with the headline "Reported suicide of convicted sex offender was a hoax, Ohio cops say. 3 now charged."
