Manitoba man lied about abduction: N.D. police

U.S. authorities say a Manitoba man falsely claimed he had been kidnapped and taken across the Canada-U.S. border over the weekend.

Roderick Garson, 37, is being held in a county jail near Alexandria, Minn., after he was arrested and charged with falsely reporting a crime.

The arrest stems from a report police received Saturday that a man had been abducted with a weapon in Manitoba and taken across the border into the United States.

The investigation led U.S. authorities to Alexandria, about two hours northwest of Minneapolis, where police located the reported victim and suspect after the latter ran into a local store claiming he had escaped from his 31-year-old unnamed captor.

Police now believe both men knew one another, and that no weapons were found during their investigation.

“Through a coordinated investigation involving local, state, federal, and Canadian law enforcement, investigators conducted extensive followup into the reported abduction,” Lt. Jenna Clawson Huibretgse of the North Dakota State Patrol said in an email to the Free Press on Monday.

During subsequent interviews, Huibretgse said investigators determined Garson “had fabricated an elaborate account of being abducted.”

Federal law enforcement is also reviewing the circumstances surrounding the incident for any potential federal violations, she said.

“While the reported abduction was ultimately determined to be false, law enforcement agencies responded based on the information available at the time and treated the report with the seriousness required when a person’s safety may be at risk,” Huibretgse said.

“The investigation involved significant coordination and resources across international and state lines. We appreciate the work of every agency involved in quickly investigating the report and ultimately determining the timeline and occurrence of events.”

scott.billeck@freepress.mb.ca