POSTED APRIL 24 AT 5:19 P.M.
The 21 year-old University of Miami student who claimed to have been assaulted and threatened by an attacker with a knife, admitted she had falsified the story and had inflicted the wounds on to herself, police said.
The student, whose name is not being released, notified police that a man with a knife had attempted to steal her jewelry while she was jogging last Friday on Pisano Avenue near Doctors Hospital, but had fled when she put up a fight. (Read the initial story.)
“The event was fabricated,” said Officer Frank Jackson of the Coral Gables Police Department. “There were some hard scratch marks, not just superficial wounds. They weren’t from a knife or any attacker. She had done it herself.”
Investigators determined that the student, who claimed the attacker had torn her clothing with the blade, had actually ripped it by hand, Jackson added.
When investigators returned to the scene of the “crime” days later, at 7:45 p.m., the time of the incident, they “concluded it was highly-unlikely that nobody had seen or heard the screams and struggle,” said Jackson, who noted that the area has heavy foot-traffic.
“We will not release her name because she may have mental issues and it would be against federal guidelines to do so,” said Jackson. “We will put her in touch with someone in our department and at the university, to get her help.”
Individuals who falsify a police report may be charged with committing a crime, but Jackson said she will most likely not be charged because she “may be suffering from mental instability.”
“We are most concerned with her mental health and well-being,” he said.
Continue to check TheMiamiHurricane.com for updates.
Chelsea Kate Isaacs may be contacted at chelsea@miami.edu.