Almost a month ago, Global News reported on the disappearance of New York woman Rachael Mattice, who’d gone to a campsite and disappeared.
Mattice, 24, a home health care aide from Johnstown, N.Y., was missing for two weeks after she drove to a remote campsite in the Adirondack Mountains. She was initially last seen on June 22, after she left her parents’ house.
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Even Canadian country singer Shania Twain, of whom Mattice is a big fan, tried to help search for her.
When she resurfaced in early July, she told an elaborate story about being abducted and held in a wood shed. She claimed she was kidnapped while on a camping trip in Hamilton County, and that she was repeatedly assaulted by a man in his late 50s.
Mattice described her alleged kidnapper as white, six feet tall with brown eyes, grey hair and a full beard. Police even used a sketch of the man to follow leads in the case.
At the time, the Hamilton County Sheriff’s Office provided this picture of Mattice, and offered a $2,000 reward for her safe return.
It turns out the entire story is false; a witness came forward to police, saying he gave Mattice a ride to a neighbouring camp, and his story was corroborated by additional witnesses.
Further, the evidence didn’t add up. Mattice had no injuries when she returned to her family home, and her stories conflicted. In addition, she was about to be questioned as a suspect in a prescription drug theft at the time of her disappearance.
Some sources are speculating that she may have faked her abduction to get attention from Twain, but that doesn’t seem to be the major motivation here.
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County police say the two-week search cost them well into “the six figures” and involved looking into roughly 400 different leads.
She was arrested and charged with a misdemeanour for giving a false report to police, and could face up to a year in prison if convicted. She will have to appear in court on Aug. 9.
Here is her mugshot (courtesy of the Hamilton County Police), quite the variation from the original picture given to police:
Mattice is still sticking to her version of events.