After leading a concerned witness to believe a kidnapping had occurred, an Arkansas woman and her reported captor were later found to be lying about the act, authorities said.
The Pulaski County sheriff’s office was called around 5:40 p.m. Saturday to the Dollar General at 2504 Ferndale Cutoff Road in Little Rock, according to a report.
While inside the store, a sheriff’s deputy said that a woman, later identified as Haley Marie Parker, 42, of Benton, turned to him and mouthed, “Help me.”
The deputy then motioned for Parker to come to him, at which point she complied and was “quickly pushed” past him and out of the store.
The suspected kidnapper, later identified as Cody Dylan Oneal, 31, of Little Rock, then turned to him and “had a blank stare,” the deputy said.
The 64-year-old witness told authorities that Parker had approached her while she shopped inside the store earlier that day, with Parker telling her of how she had been kidnapped and held against her will for four days.
The sheriff’s office said the witness provided her cellphone, at one point calling Parker’s father.
“[The witness] said [that] when talking with [Parker], [Parker] seemed very scared of the man, and [the witness] believed [Parker] when … [Parker] was saying she was in danger,” the deputy said.
While responding, authorities noticed that the vehicle that Parker and Oneal had traveled in to the store, a silver 1996 Toyota Camry belonging to a Sherwood resident, had been reported stolen by the North Little Rock Police Department.
The sheriff’s office was later able to determine that there was no kidnapping and that the story was false.
Parker and Oneal were arrested on charges of theft by receiving and were taken to the Pulaski County jail, according to authorities.
