Texas woman arrested, police say missing child ‘didn’t exist’

El Paso police responded when a woman called 911 Sunday saying her toddler was inside a vehicle that had allegedly been stolen. Police said it turned out the child did not exist.

Stacie Dashay Marie Smith, 19, of East El Paso, was arrested on a charge of filing a false report or alarm following an investigation by detectives with the Crimes Against Persons Unit, which investigates kidnappings and other serious crimes.

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Smith is accused of making up a story about a fictitious child going missing to speed up a police response and help locate her friend’s vehicle, which had allegedly been stolen, police officials said in a news release Monday, July 1.

The search for the child and vehicle began at 12:30 p.m. Sunday, June 30, in the 14000 block of Lasso Rock Drive, near the intersection of Pebble Hills and Rich Beem boulevards on the Far East Side.

Police first received a report of a stolen vehicle. Smith then allegedly called 911 to report that her child was missing and that she suspected the child had been kidnapped by the person who stole her friend’s vehicle, police said.

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After officers met Smith and her friend, the vehicle was found after an “extensive search,” but the child was still missing, police said. Detectives from the Crimes Against the Persons Unit were called in to assist with the investigation into the child’s disappearance.

“The investigation revealed the child did not exist and that Smith had provided a fictitious name for the child so that police could quickly locate her friend’s vehicle,” police said in a statement.

Smith was arrested on suspicion of false reporting or alarm. She remained jailed Monday on $5,000 bail at the El Paso County Jail in downtown El Paso.

It was not disclosed whether anyone was arrested in connection with the vehicle theft.