An Ohio man caused panic among his family and friends and eventually ended up in trouble with the police for texting people that he murdered his fiancée. To complete the hoax he also sent faked photos of her “dead” body to them.
Police confronted Micah Risner and Nataleigh Schlette at their home in Sandusky, Ohio, last week after receiving several panicked phone calls from family members worried that Micah had done something terrible to Nataleigh, The Daily Mail reported.
The trouble-making duo had staged a murder scene by taking photos of Nataleigh lying in a bathtub, eyes closed, with spurts of ketchup splashed around a kitchen knife to simulate blood. Risner then texted the photos to his sister and other members of the family with panicked messages about having accidentally killed the woman.
One of the messages Risner sent with the faked murder photo read, “Please help me! I really didn’t mean to. I don’t remember. We was arguing and I woke up to this.”
After his sister replied with a worried demand that he call her, Risner next texted, “I woke up on the bathroom floor with blood on me. And her like that. I’m trying to clean. But I don’t know if I [should].”
Police reported that Risner explained that he was only attempting to get his sister to come to his home to confront her about money he claims she stole from him.
Unimpressed by the practical joke, both Risner and Schlette were arrested and hit with a misdemeanor charge of inducing a panic, according to the Sandusky Register.
It is unclear how many people Risner sent the photo to, but police say they received calls from Risner’s mother and sister.
Before police arrested him, Risner posted an apology of sorts to Facebook. In the message he asked friends and family to stand by him as he deals with his self-imposed legal trouble.
“I’m gonna miss every single one of you that I knew and that treated me like family. I love you all so much,” Risner said on Facebook.
“I promise to get better and do better, especially because this isn’t real and you should post it as your status and see how many people actually read stuff till the end before they fall for it,” his post concluded
Follow Warner Todd Huston on Twitter @warnerthuston or email the author at igcolonel@hotmail.com.
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