Sheriff's office: Arkansan lied to man she met on app about kidnapping, asked for ransom

Rebecca M. Williams, 20, of Jonesboro
Rebecca M. Williams, 20, of Jonesboro

An Arkansas woman working at a sleep disorder clinic was arrested early Thursday during her shift after she lied to a man she met on a dating app, telling him she’d been kidnapped, authorities said.

Deputy Dustin Norwood with the Craighead County sheriff’s office was sent around 3:30 a.m. to the Christian Life Center in Brookland off U.S. 49 in response to a possible kidnapping, according to a police report.

At the center, he spoke with a 21-year-old man who said an acquaintance he met on a dating app, though never in person, had been sending some troubling texts. The woman, identified as 20-year-old Rebecca M. Williams of Jonesboro, texted the man that her vehicle had broken down and said someone was trying to break in, authorities said.

Then, a person who appeared to be using Williams’ phone started to send texts to the 21-year-old, saying that he would see Williams “at a later date” and that the message-sender was “going to have fun with her.”

The sender told the man that a “couple thousand” would get Williams back and warned him not to call 911.

“Do you know what happened to the boy who tried to save his girl? She died,” one of the messages reportedly read.

Authorities spoke with Williams’ mother, who is also her boss at the NEA Baptist Clinic Center for Sleep Disorders at 1118 Windover Road, the report said. She told authorities that her daughter was supposed to be at work.

Norwood found Williams at the clinic, and she reportedly admitted to sending the texts but said they were not meant to be taken seriously.

She was arrested on a charge of communicating a false alarm and released from the Craighead County jail about 6 a.m. Thursday on $495 bond.

A court date is scheduled for Tuesday.

ADVERTISEMENT

More headlines

Upcoming Events