Miami woman faked abduction in act of revenge, police say

Samantha Martinez tells police she wanted to get back at boyfriend

MIAMI ā€“ A Miami woman was arrested Wednesday after she faked her own abduction as an act of revenge, police said.

Miami police said Samantha Martinez, 20, hadn't been seen since Nov. 30, but she came forward late Tuesday, admitting that she faked her abduction to get revenge on her boyfriend.

Police had announced Tuesday that they believed Martinez was in danger and may have been in the Overtown area.

Her boyfriend told police that he had received several text messages from an unknown number saying that "they had the victim and were going to keep her captive and do physical harm to her" unless he paid a ransom, an arrest affidavit said.

The boyfriend said he believed the man who abducted Martinez was someone he owed about $300 in a previous botched drug deal.

He also received a voice mail from Martinez, who was distraught and crying. She told him just to pay the money "so that no harm came to her," the affidavit said.

Eventually, the boyfriend went to police.

Martinez was found Tuesday at a hospital, where she claimed that she had been sexually assaulted.

During an interview with detectives, Martinez said she had been staying with a friend and had sex with him in order to get back at her boyfriend. She said they decided to make up an abduction story so that she could stay at the friend's home, but she went to police "to clear things up" after the abduction was reported in the news.

Martinez faces a charge of making a false report to police. She was being held at the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center on a $500 bond.


About the Authors:

Peter Burke returned for a second stint of duty at Local 10 News in February 2014.