Kidnapped Baby Hoax Busted: Amber Alert Cancelled; Charges Pending against Woman

A woman from Knoxville could be slapped with charges for making a hoax call to the police claiming that her baby had been kidnapped by a couple.

A 26-year-old woman named Kristal Franklin called 911 with a false story that her 10-week-old baby girl was abducted by a couple at around 11:00 a.m. on Friday while she was walking near Magnolia Avenue & Harrison Street in East Knoxville, WBIR was quoted as saying to Knoxville Police Department (KPD). She claimed that a black man and a white woman stole her bag containing cash and a car seat that has her child.

KPD began search operation for the child, taking resources from the Knox County Sheriff's Office, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), and Tennessee Bureau of Investigation (TBI). TBI even issue Amber Alert at around 1:00 p.m but it was cancelled and the search called off after learning that the woman came out with a fabricated story.

"We have to treat this as though it was an abduction," Darrell DeBusk told the media according to WBIR. "There is some concern there's not an actual child. But we're not going to take that chance. In the case of an abducted child, the first few hours are critical to find them."

"Finally during the interview with the investigators, she broke down and said that she had made the story up. She did not have a child. The pictures that she gave to us of her apparent child are actually children of relatives," said DeBusk. "She has a seven-year-old child, but does not have any other children."

DeBusk said that the woman would remain in custody and a psychological evaluation to be taken based on which charges is expected to be framed against her. District Attorney is expected to at least charge her with filing a false report. He went on to say that the main concern is the impact false Amber Alert will have on the public.

"We hate that. The last thing we want to do is overuse an Amber Alert and use it in cases such as this. But we had to do what we had to do to find that child until we were able to determine there was not a child involved," said DeBusk.