A Laurens County woman is facing charges after the Laurens County Sheriff said it appears she faked her own kidnapping Tuesday.
Victoria Queeyona Turner, wearing what appeared to be a “Turn Up” T-shirt, walked out of the sheriff’s office door in handcuffs Tuesday afternoon and wouldn’t answer any questions about the 4 charges she now faces.
Sheriff Ricky Chastain said the hours-long search for Turner’s “abductor” on Tuesday drained law enforcement resources and cost taxpayers thousands.
The State Law Enforcement Division’s chopper flew, blood hounds sniffed, Piedmont Technical College’s Laurens County campus and Laurens County Hospital locked down for hours – all for a suspect Chastain said didn’t exist.
“It’s very frustrating for the officers. It’s very frustrating for the taxpayers,” Chastain said.
He said the 22-year-old Turner called her mother from inside her own trunk on Tool Shed Road, saying a man had kidnapped her at her grandfather’s home in Newberry County, forced her into the trunk and driven to Laurens County.
Turner told deputies the first name, appearance and description of the alleged kidnapper’s car.
Chastain said deputies were suspicious of her story early on.
“Some things started not adding up, just from the position of the seat in the car to the story – not knowing the name, things that happened, the phone calls,” said Chastain.
He said one of the things that made investigators suspicious early on is that Turner called her family first while she was inside the trunk, not 911.
Chastain said the Laurens County Sheriff’s Office, the Newberry County Sheriff’s Office and the State Law Enforcement Division still had to act to keep the community safe.
“The fuel, the man power, the expenses to conduct a search like this – even if it was only four or five hours — runs into the thousands of dollars. So it was a very expensive search,” said Chastain.
The Laurens County Sheriff’s Office charged Turner with four crimes: felony filing a false police report, giving false information to law enforcement, unlawful use of 911 and aggravated breach of peace.
Laurens County Sheriff’s Office spokesperson Lt. Judy Stiles said it’s likely The Newberry County Sheriff’s Office will bring its own charges against her as well.
