ST. GEORGE — A report of the attempted abduction of a woman on St. George Boulevard in the middle of the night turned out to be false, police say.
On Monday, shortly after 3 a.m., officers were dispatched to the 800 block of St. George Boulevard on a report of an attempted kidnapping.
According to charging documents filed with 5th District Court, the 911 caller reported that a man attempted to “grab her and force her into his car,” the officer noted. The complainant also provided a description of the suspect and the vehicle the man was allegedly driving.
While patrol units were responding to the call, one of the officers advised the other units that he was on a traffic stop and had been for some time. The driver matched the description of the alleged kidnapping suspect and the vehicle also matched the one described by the 911 caller.
The car was stopped near 300 East St. George Blvd., which also coincided with information provided by the complainant as to where the attempted abduction had reportedly taken place.
Police say the caller reported that the crime had occurred in one location, but the call came in from a location that was several blocks away. Officers then saw a woman walking down the street near 900 East St. George Blvd. When asked, she told officers “she had nothing to do with it,” the report alleges.
She then identified herself as Stephanie Marie Roberts, 36, who officers recognized as a suspect in a recent crime tied to the same vehicle stopped by police. It was at that point officers suspected Roberts as the possible 911 caller who reported the attempted abduction.
Suspicions heightened when police discovered that the phone number associated with the 911 call and Roberts’ cellphone number were the same.
Roberts initially denied calling 911 but then “changed her story” and said she called because her friend “did try to kidnap her, but after she called 911, she was worried about getting him in trouble,” the officer wrote in the report.
After learning that the officer who stopped the vehicle had followed it from the convenience store, which wouldn’t have left enough time for that attempted abduction to occur, Roberts allegedly changed her story again.
Officers also learned that Roberts was with the alleged abductor at the convenience store before she walked away on foot, presumably because “there were cops everywhere.” This led officers to believe Roberts called 911 to divert officers away from her location.
Roberts was arrested and booked into jail and was later charged with a third-degree felony count of a false emergency report involving injury or death and a misdemeanor obstruction charge. A preliminary-waive hearing has been scheduled to take place on May 8. Bail has been set at $5,000 and she remains in custody at the time of this report.
This report is based on statements from court records, police or other responders and may not contain the full scope of findings. Persons arrested or charged are presumed innocent until found guilty in a court of law or as otherwise decided by a trier-of-fact.
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