Woman stages phony abduction
By Elizabeth Billips Associate Editor

Melinda Taylor was found in Richmond County after telling her boyfriend she had been kidnapped.

A Waynesboro woman who claimed she was kidnapped was found safe and sound in Richmond County.

Burke and Richmond County deputies began searching for 32-year-old Melinda Taylor last Thursday after her boyfriend received four text messages from her cell phone number demanding $5,000 ransom for her safe return.

Taylor had gone to work at McDonald's in Augusta the morning prior and never returned home.

In addition to the text messages, the boyfriend received two phone calls from an unidentified male who demanded ransom money.

During one of the calls, Taylor was put on the phone and she cried as she described how she was abducted and forced into a car by two unknown black men at the Food Lion in Richmond County, a report filed at the Burke County Sheriff's Office said.

After a day of searching and numerous news blips, a Richmond County deputy picked up Taylor on Highway 56 after she called authorities on her cell phone.

"She told us that the claims were untrue, but she wouldn't go into why," Sgt. Calvin Chew of the Richmond County Sheriff 's Office said.

He said that because Taylor herself never reported the alleged kidnapping to authorities, she will not face criminal charges.

"She lied to her boyfriend, but she didn't file a formal complaint," Sgt. Chew said, adding that the boyfriend's family called authorities in "good faith."

Early in the investigation, however, there had been doubts. Richmond County officers were unable to substantiate Taylor's claim to have been abducted in Food Lion, and her vehicle was not in the store's parking lot.

The boyfriend's family members also told officers that Taylor's brother was released from jail Wednesday - and that she may have stayed out all night with him and was afraid to come home.