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Chloe Elizabeth Stein of Jeannette, PA, left her car on the side of Radebaugh Road under Route 66 in Jeannette and walked three miles to a friend's house on the evening of Monday, May 1, 2023, PSP Trooper Steve Limani said.
Sometime around then, she sent a text to her boyfriend saying she'd been pulled over, prompting authorities to issue a Missing Endangered Person Advisory.
"The entire community was very scared," Limani said, noting his department expended all resources including a helicopter to try to find Stein.
On Tuesday, Stein's mom told police that Chloe had finished a shift working at the Sonic in Hempfield Township before, running a couple of errands, and then returned home.
PSP eventually realized that Stein had never been pulled over and, while a relief to know she was safe, they began trying to understand what really happened.
According to KDKA-TV, Stein said she had been held and gunpoint, semi-assaulted, bound, and released, then dropped off near an alleyway. Then, she admitted to police she made the whole thing up, the outlet said citing police paperwork.
Why? Well, according to Limani: "The fact of not going to school for so long and disappointing people maybe was the reasoning behind it."
Stein's defense attorney requested privacy in a statement to KDKA-TV.
Stein was charged with false alarm to an agency of public safety, false reports, obstruction of the administration of law, and various related offenses, court records show.
"The biggest concern," Limani said, "was the entire community was very scared."
She has been held in the Westmoreland County Jail after failing to post $25,000 in bail, and her preliminary hearing has been set before Magisterial District Judge Joseph R. DeMarchis on May 25, 2023 at 8:30 a.m., according to her court docket.
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