"Victim' carved initials into her own chest with pair of scissors
By SAMMY ALLEN of the Gazette Staff
LINDEN, Texas--A 32-year-old black woman lied about being abducted and assaulted by two white men last week, Cass County authorities said Tuesday.
Chief Deputy Ronnie Fincher said the Bivins, Texas, woman also etched the letters "KKK" into her own chest.
"She admitted it to the FBI agent and one of our deputies," Fincher said Tuesday afternoon. "She can't give us an answer as to why she did it. Charges are pending against her."
Authorities said the woman may have been involved in an interracial affair with a white man--the same one she told investigators picked her up Thursday morning after she was allegedly thrown from a pickup after being held captive overnight by two white men.
"They say they're just friends," Fincher said of the couple. "The (FBI) agent and the deputy got him to admit she spent the night at his house. Authorities said both the man and woman were recently separated from their spouses.
The woman filed a report Thursday with the sheriff's office claiming two white men wearing white sheets or pillow cases over their heads had abducted her in a pickup. She was treated at Atlanta Memorial Hospital for several injuries and was examined for possible sexual assault.
Fincher said the woman had injuries to her body, but the story she told to back up her claims was not true.
"It was all fabricated," Fincher said. He said the woman carved the letters KKK on her chest with a pair of scissors.
Cass County investigators had already voiced doubts about the racial attack Tuesday morning during the news conference. The FBI agent arrived later in the day and questioned the woman and witnesses.
"The letters appear to be mirror images--as if someone did them while looking in a mirror," Fincher said.
Cass County investigator Sgt. Ray Copeland said much time and effort was spent looking into the woman's claims. "We went door-to-door Friday in the area where she said she was kidnapped. We notified authorities in the surrounding area with the description of the truck.
"We've stopped several vehicles fitting that description in the Bivins, Linden and Atlanta area and identified the drivers."
Hmmmm...it was the AP office in the Texas-Arkansas region that "missed" the rape-murder of Jesse Dirkhising in Rogers, AR., and didn't send locally published accounts over the national wire. Think maybe there's a pattern?