PORT ST. LUCIE — The incident of a girl who may have been abducted Wednesday morning is now said to be a hoax, police announced about noon.

A police spokesman said there was no little girl.

There was “a lot of wasted resources today,” said Officer Tom Nichols, police spokesman, of all the law enforcement agencies that assisted with this search.

An Amber Alert was issued shortly before 11 a.m. Wednesday for a girl police thought was abducted as she walked along Midtown Road near Port St. Lucie Boulevard earlier in the morning.

Two boys described the girl as being between 7 and 8 years old, white with dark hair. She was last seen wearing a blue skirt and a pink or purple shirt.

“After interviewing the boys for quite a few hours, they have recanted their story and said it was made up — it was a hoax,” Nichols said. “The only validity to it was there was an actual white van on Midtown (Road) here, everything after it about the girl bring abducted is in fact a hoax.”

Nichols said detectives are trying to find out why they made up such a story.

It’s not clear what school the boys attend.

Nichols suspects investigators will be speaking with the parents of the boys “to find out why they made up this story.” Nichols said it’s possible the kids could face criminal charges.

The Amber Alert had said the child might be in the company of two Hispanic males, approximately 20 to 30 years old with dark hair, both wearing blue or black T-shirts. It said they were thought to have been involved in the abduction and might be traveling in a white, possibly newer model panel van with t-style brushed aluminum rims.

Two 8- to 9-year-old boys walking to their bus stop at Southeast Pinero Road originally reported to police seeing a “suspicious van” driving south on Midtown Road about 7:25 a.m. when the van changed directions and went north. They said the van passed them and the occupants are thought to have taken the girl, according to police.

“They witnessed the van allegedly abduct this child,” Nichols said earlier during the search, adding the boys said the girl was kicking and screaming when they grabbed her and took off.

Police checked the public schools to make sure all the children are in school and no one was missing.

White vans were being stopped in hopes of finding the girl and police checked all sex offenders and/or predators in the area.

A flurry of law enforcement officers and vehicles descended on the area. A helicopter hovered over the area, at one point broadcasting information about the abduction and asking anyone with information to call 911.

Several law enforcement K-9 teams from throughout the state that were training in Martin County arrived at the scene to assist.

FORT PIERCE — The driver of a school bus involved in a Monday morning crash at 25th Street and Orange Avenue was at fault in the incident that sent a woman and a student to a local hospital, according to the Fort Pierce police.

The St. Lucie County school bus, driven by Maria Rossi, 60, was eastbound on Orange Avenue about 6:45 a.m. as a 1998 Nissan Sentra driven by 55-year-old Claudiette Compere traveled west. (more…)

FORT PIERCE — Shelitta Woods calls the past six months “miserable.”

“You got to understand, it’d been like 13, 14 years before I had another child,” Woods said. “It was just me and Lil’ Bo, just me and Lil’ Bo, everywhere I go, me and Lil’ Bo.”

Woods’ 16-year-old son, Torenda “Lil’ Bo” Youngblood Jr., was fatally shot at his bus stop March 9, two days after Demetrius Wells, 18, sustained fatal wounds in a drive-by shooting. Two men also were hit by gunfire during separate shootings between the homicides. (more…)

FORT PIERCE — A 22-year-old man accused of forcing a teen girl to perform a sex act on him before raping her at his mother’s home faces felony charges, according to an arrest affidavit released Monday.

The 16-year-old girl told police Sunday she met Timothy E. Mitz, of the 2800 block of Avenue H, about three to four weeks ago and engaged in “semi-consensual” sexual activities during that time.

She told investigators she was at Mitz’s mother’s residence on the 700 block of South 29th Street and went to sleep about 3 a.m. Sunday.
(more…)

PORT ST. LUCIE — A teen girl was struck by a pick-up truck Monday morning while she was at her bus stop, though the girl’s injuries were very minor, a St. Lucie County Fire District spokeswoman said.

The girl was at Northwest Bayshore Boulevard and Northwest Rainbow Street, Fire District spokeswoman Catherine Chaney said. Fire district crews responded just before 6:30 a.m., but were called off.

Nick Perslin, 37, said his 17-year-old son was driving the Toyota pick-up. Perslin said his son was on his way to pick up a friend to go to St. Lucie West Centennial High School at the time.
(more…)

STUART — It was “bizarre” for Martin County Sheriff Robert Crowder to repeatedly pat the short, spiky haircut of Detective Jennifer Heard, her lawyer said, and he expects Heard’s sexual harassment complaint to lead to a federal discrimination suit.

“We fully expect to file a lawsuit and just litigate the matter,” said Justus Reid, a lawyer representing Heard. “The overall theme will be gender discrimination and, in effect, sexual harassment that went on in the department.”

Heard filed a complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission in May alleging the sexual harassment against her began shortly after she was hired in September 1996 and continued for the next 12 years in the form of sexual advances, catcalls and a suggestive nickname. She also accused Crowder of belittling her by patting her on the head.
(more…)

PORT ST. LUCIE — A man found naked in the room of a 12-year-old girl with whom he communicated on MySpace and discussed having sex faces two felony charges, according to recently released arrest and court records.

The victim told police she spent most of a day in late June communicating with a man identified as Barrington Benjimen Smith Jr., 18, of the 500 block of Northwest Avon Avenue in Port St. Lucie.

They arranged to meet, she told police. The victim opened her bedroom window and let Smith in about 12:30 a.m. June 25, records state.
(more…)

STUART — Two girls were charged with aggravated battery Friday after they attacked a woman who was attempting to break up a fight between her son and another man, according to an affidavit released Monday.

The girls, ages 15 and 16, were at a party with the two men and rode with them to the woman’s house in the 4300 block of Southeast Chesapeake Bay Drive around 3:30 a.m.

The report says the two men began fighting as they arrived at the residence, and the woman came outside to try and break up the fight.
(more…)

MIAMI — After a long and exhaustive investigation, the deaths of two infants and the sickening of a third at Miami Children’s Hospital is a medical mystery.

The infants, born extremely prematurely, their immune systems compromised, were in the hospital’s Neonatal Intensive Care Unit when two of them died of a common yet lethal bacterium in March. (more…)

FORT PIERCE — A registered sex offender and his girlfriend were arrested Tuesday following allegations that they beat an 11-year-old girl and her siblings, according to records released Wednesday.

The 11-year-old girl told sheriff’s investigators John Louis Cooper, 30, burned her with a cigarette lighter. She said she feared being raped by Cooper because he “raped a 13-year-old girl before,” records show.

Cooper was convicted in 2002 of lewd act on a minor less than 16 and is a registered sex offender because of it, records show.

The girl said Cooper and his 32-year-old girlfriend, Kathy Ann Carson, push them around and punch her and her 9-year-old brother “all the time,” according to the report.

The brother had an injury on his finger he said was caused by Cooper purposely burning him with a lighter, records show.

The elder girl said Cooper punches her in the chest when she misbehaves, the records show. The boy said he has difficulty with bed-wetting and Cooper punches him in the chest because of it. The boy also was found to have a “fungal scalp infection” that had been present for months.

Cooper faces two counts of child abuse, and Carson was arrested on a single child abuse charge. Carson’s charge stems from alleged abuse on a 4-year-old girl. A doctor examined the 4-year-old girl and the two older children and founds signs of abuse or neglect.

Cooper and his girlfriend live in the 5100 block of La Salle Street.

By Will Greenlee, TCPalm.com