On Saturday the Wood Buffalo RCMP reported that a potential abduction on Thursday was a false alarm. On Thursday witnesses reported that a teenage girl may have been abducted in Timberlea shortly after 8 am because an older male picked up a teenage girl and carried her to a newer white SUV. At the time the RCMP investigated it as a potential abduction, and Wood Buffalo RCMP Cpl. Jesse Jones told the media “We’re not entirely sure if it was an abduction, or if it was maybe someone, a father, seeing his daughter walking to school and then picking her up to drive her off. Basically right now we sent out the media release just to garner the public’s assistance in maybe helping us determine if this was indeed an abduction. It’s snowy out, it’s wet out, it could just be someone carrying their child to the car or it could be someone forcefully taking this person.”

By Saturday the RCMP investigators determined that the potential abduction was a false alarm. An individual came forward to the police and allowed the police to determine that the girl was safe and was not abducted. Wood Buffalo RCMP Cpl. Wanita Patey explained “Our serious crimes unit, they did go and confirm the safety and well being of the girl involved. When information of that nature comes in, and there’s signs of struggle or anything deemed to be suspicious, then we have to do the full investigation and treat it as a possible abduction until the investigation is complete.”