MARION COUNTY — A 17-year-old Florida teen faces multiple charges after deputies say he staged an elaborate hoax involving his own abduction, a self-inflicted gunshot wound and fake evidence that prompted a statewide Amber Alert last month.
Caden Speight was arrested Tuesday on counts of presenting false evidence, shooting into a conveyance, making a false report of a crime and possession of a firearm by a minor, the Marion County Sheriff’s Office announced. He was taken to the Department of Juvenile Justice following his arrest.
The bizarre incident unfolded on Sept. 25 when Speight texted a family member claiming he’d been abducted by four Hispanic men in a van and shot during the ordeal, according to sheriff’s investigators. Deputies responded to a reported shooting in Dunnellon, where they found Speight’s abandoned truck with a bullet hole through the windshield, splattered blood inside, a severely damaged cellphone and drag marks in the dirt suggesting a struggle.
An Amber Alert was issued that evening as authorities mobilized a massive search involving multiple agencies, scouring the area for the missing teen and any suspects.
But the story quickly unraveled. Crime scene technicians determined the scene was staged, and Speight was located the next day in nearby Williston, in Levy County, still trying to maintain the ruse despite a self-inflicted gunshot wound to his leg that shattered his femur and required medical treatment.
Investigators said Speight had stopped at a Walmart earlier that day to buy a bicycle, tent and sleeping bag. He then fired a shot through his truck’s windshield, collected and splattered his own blood in the vehicle, destroyed his phone and created the drag marks before fleeing on the bike with camping supplies.
A search of Speight’s laptop revealed he’d researched how to collect blood without pain and information on Mexican cartels, deputies said. They also learned he’d previously mentioned running away from home.
“The initial details that Caden texted to his family were proven to be false. Completely made up,” Sheriff Billy Woods said in a statement last month after the hoax was uncovered. “We did find evidence of a single gunshot where Caden left his truck. However, his claims that he had been shot and abducted were quickly disproven.”
Woods added that the stunt wasted significant resources from the sheriff’s office and other law enforcement partners who deployed personnel to search for Speight and process the fake crime scene.
Authorities did not disclose a specific motive for the hoax but noted Speight’s prior talk of running away as a possible factor.
The Amber Alert system, named after 9-year-old Amber Hagerman who was abducted and killed in Texas in 1996, is used nationwide to broadcast information about child abductions. False reports like this one can undermine public trust in the alerts, officials have warned in similar past cases.
Speight’s case remains under investigation, and additional charges could be filed. No court date was immediately announced.
