Police: Report of missing 4-year-old was hoax

A report of a missing 4-year-old girl turned out to be a hoax, and the woman who filed the report with Columbus police could face charges.

The 34-year-old woman initially reported the girl missing during a court appearance Monday for unrelated misdemeanor theft charges. She said she was the child’s mother.

The missingpersons unit of the Police Division began a search for the girl, as did authorities in Pittsburgh, where the child reportedly had family.

But police said relatives there reported that the photograph the woman gave to police, which was being used by local media, was actually the woman’s niece, who is now a teenager and not missing.

The woman had stopped cooperating with police early on in the investigation, complicating the efforts of law enforcement.

Columbus police spokeswoman Denise Alex-bouzounis said there is no evidence anyone else in the woman’s family was aware she filed the report. AlexBouzounis said the woman likely will be charged with filing a false police report. Those charges had not yet been filed Tuesday.

Alex-bouzounis said police spent about 24 hours working the case, which was a high priority because of the child’s age. She said investigators are frustrated because the false report took them away from other cases.