Found Safe FL - Caden Speight, 17, was found safe (after falsely reporting kidnapping)

[teeby]

I feel like as a parent I would not allow my child to talk to the cops until I had talked to a lawyer and if the lawyer said to get him a psych eval before talking to the cops, I'd do that. Not because I think fake kidnapping stories are acceptable, but because it's your 5th amendment right not to incriminate yourself and you can never un-say anything you said to a cop.

 

[Knox]

Any updates?

 

[swanniee11]

I have not read anything new. We have to keep in mind, he is a minor so we may not see anything, at least not with his name. IMO

 

[Leilei]

Per Marion County Sheriff's Office FB page:


Today, Marion County Sheriff’s Office (MCSO) Major Crimes Detective Jason Williams arrested 17-year-old Caden Speight (W/M, DOB: 04/28/2008) for Presenting False Evidence, Shooting into a Conveyance, Making a False Report of a Crime, and Possession of a Firearm by a Minor.

 

[dmac55]

Marion County teen arrested after faking abduction that prompted Amber Alert, deputies say

A 17-year-old boy accused of faking an abduction that sparked an Amber Alert last month has been arrested, according to the Marion County Sheriff’s Office.

www.clickorlando.com

 

[Tealgrove]

Marion County teen arrested after faking abduction that prompted Amber Alert, deputies say

A 17-year-old boy accused of faking an abduction that sparked an Amber Alert last month has been arrested, according to the Marion County Sheriff’s Office.

www.clickorlando.com

So…why?

 

[Leilei]

So…why?

I'll be surprised if he ever explains everything to the public.
IMO.

 

[justtrish]

Marion County teen arrested after faking abduction that prompted Amber Alert, deputies say

A 17-year-old boy accused of faking an abduction that sparked an Amber Alert last month has been arrested, according to the Marion County Sheriff’s Office.

www.clickorlando.com

From the article:

The sheriff’s office said Caden had mentioned running away prior to the incident and had used ChatGPT to search how to collect blood without causing pain and to search about Mexican cartels.




This makes me think this was less about him claiming it was Mexicans and more about him thinking/knowing cartels are known for abductions. I think he was trying to make this abduction believable by trying to get people to think it was a cartel, but instead the fact he claimed it was Mexicans make it suspicious for being fake. I didn't see one comment after this happened where anyone questioned if maybe it was a cartel.

I am glad he was charged and I hope he gets the help he clearly needs because something is going on for him to not just run away, but to try to make some larger incident about it in order to get sympathy perhaps from his parents. This is not to put blame on them at all, but I think he's got things going on he didn't feel he could tell his parents or maybe he felt they wouldn't care so he wanted to create this big abduction to see if they did/would care.

 

[Eli9]

From the article:

The sheriff’s office said Caden had mentioned running away prior to the incident and had used ChatGPT to search how to collect blood without causing pain and to search about Mexican cartels.




This makes me think this was less about him claiming it was Mexicans and more about him thinking/knowing cartels are known for abductions. I think he was trying to make this abduction believable by trying to get people to think it was a cartel, but instead the fact he claimed it was Mexicans make it suspicious for being fake. I didn't see one comment after this happened where anyone questioned if maybe it was a cartel.

I am glad he was charged and I hope he gets the help he clearly needs because something is going on for him to not just run away, but to try to make some larger incident about it in order to get sympathy perhaps from his parents. This is not to put blame on them at all, but I think he's got things going on he didn't feel he could tell his parents or maybe he felt they wouldn't care so he wanted to create this big abduction to see if they did/would care.

Staged the 'crime scene' with drag marks and smashed his cell. There is something serious going on with this young man. Hoping he will get help dealing with whatever it is that made him act out. Thinking its a bigger issue. Sigh

 

[Knox]

Doesn’t sound like his parents had any involvement whatsoever. Social media was brutal in their opinions, hopefully that’s put to rest now.

Are they trying him as an adult?

 

[Unalienable Rights]

Marion County teen arrested after faking abduction that prompted Amber Alert, deputies say

A 17-year-old boy accused of faking an abduction that sparked an Amber Alert last month has been arrested, according to the Marion County Sheriff’s Office.

www.clickorlando.com

From the article:

*****
The sheriff’s office said on Tuesday that during its investigation, crime scene technicians found the teen’s phone severely damaged, drag marks in the dirt, a bullet hole through the windshield, suspected blood and tire tracks leading away from the truck.

*****
“Further investigation and testing revealed that Speight had fired the shot through the windshield, splattered a mixture of blood in the truck, and destroyed his cell phone. Speight then fled the area on a bicycle with camping supplies he purchased at Walmart just before reporting this incident,” the sheriff’s office said on Tuesday.

*****
The sheriff’s office said Caden had mentioned running away prior to the incident and had used ChatGPT to search how to collect blood without causing pain and to search about Mexican cartels.

*****

 

[Chimera]

Thanks for the updates, everyone here !!

Whoaaahhhh... Wonder if that will be the only arrest ?
Was anyone else involved ??
Do not know what charges and/or if he'll be in jail for long, however at the very least, he and his family need to repay the city.

Eta : Sounds like he pulled this off all by his lonesome.
Imo.

 

[justtrish]

Staged the 'crime scene' with drag marks and smashed his cell. There is something serious going on with this young man. Hoping he will get help dealing with whatever it is that made him act out. Thinking its a bigger issue. Sigh

This kinda makes since in light of his searches for cartels. I am wondering if he took whatever info he learned there to try to stage it to look like what is reported in the news about cartels shooting at people and taking them.

 

[Leilei]

This kinda makes since in light of his searches for cartels. I am wondering if he took whatever info he learned there to try to stage it to look like what is reported in the news about cartels shooting at people and taking them.

I haven't seen anything about cartels shooting at people and kidnapping them here in the states, but it might just be due to where I live. Do you have a link? That's scary.

 

[justtrish]

I haven't seen anything about cartels shooting at people and kidnapping them here in the states, but it might just be due to where I live. Do you have a link? That's scary.

Husband of Winter Springs woman kidnapped, killed by alleged drug cartel sentenced to 7 years

Miguel Aguasvivas, whose wife, Katherine, was kidnapped and murdered by an alleged drug cartel in 2024, was sentenced Tuesday to seven years in federal prison after pleading guilty to money laundering charges. He was not charged in connection with her death.

www.fox35orlando.com

Katherine Altagracia Guerrero De Aguasvivas is one from Florida that could have been something he knew of or saw news about when it happened. It was one I followed here on WS and it was terrifying she was abducted at gun point while driving.

The same level of violence doesn't happen here as what occurs in Mexico.

I think this is just a case of him thinking people would believe this set up, but he didn't see the bigger picture of how unlikely this would be to happen where he was and of course when people stage things they usually mess up.

 

[OneLove]

The same level of violence doesn't happen here as what occurs in Mexico.

It was reported earlier that his parents had recently fired some Hispanic workers who had worked on the farm. I wonder what his level of communication with them had been. I once had neighbors from a region of Mexico where kidnapping kids & holding them for ransom had become almost commonplace. I wonder if he'd heard similar stories.

I think this is just a case of him thinking people would believe this set up, but he didn't see the bigger picture of how unlikely this would be to happen where he was and of course when people stage things they usually mess up.

He most likely had little exposure to a world beyond his farm, town, and school and thus had a very handicapped ability to understand how naive his plan was.