When the teen apparently vanished, his mother told police that she received a text from him which alleged that four Hispanic men had shot him before bundling him into a white van and driving away.
Before he vanished, local reports indicate that he was seen wearing a red "MAGA" hat.
Cops located his car near Marion County Airport, 80 miles from Orlando, and issued an Amber Alert to find the teen.
The teenager was later found “alive and well” on September 26.
However, Billy Woods, the Marion County Sheriff, now claims that the crime was an elaborate “hoax” devised by Speight.
In a social media video, Woods conceded that there were “red flags” early on in the case.
According to him, Speight "simply rode away towards Williston while the rest of us were left to think the worst, and my team was working in overdrive to solve this case."
To continue the ruse, Caden, who had a handgun with him since the beginning of all of this, chose to shoot himself in the leg.
“There is zero chance that Caden’s gunshot wound came from any type of assailant,” he added.
An investigation involving local, state, and federal agencies found that Speight purchased a bicycle, a tent, and camping supplies before disappearing.
64 Comments
rimu@piefed.social · 141 pts · 309d
Shoot yourself to own the libs.
Ok then?
chemical_cutthroat@lemmy.world · 40 pts · 309d
Can this be the new cinnamon challenge?
SaveTheTuaHawk@lemmy.ca · 15 pts · 308d
Charlie Kirk challenge.
Hadriscus@jlai.lu · 18 pts · 308d
Sounds like a plan. Hopefully a nationwide one
ICastFist@programming.dev · 7 pts · 308d
Oh, Caden
AmericanEconomicThinkTank@lemmy.world · 85 pts · 309d
Lmao what the fuck
someguy3@lemmy.world · 62 pts · 309d
They want to instigate a race war.
shittydwarf@piefed.social · 39 pts · 309d
Empricorn@feddit.nl · 26 pts · 309d
Republicans, man. Literally will hurt themselves if it harms those they hate. Did you happen to notice the party with control over all 3 branches of government just let it shut down...?
primrosepathspeedrun@anarchist.nexus · 25 pts · 309d
Nazis gonna Nazi.
D_C@sh.itjust.works · 72 pts · 309d
“Many of you have asked, ‘Will Caden be facing any charges?’
“‘What about the taxpayer cost of this large-scale investigation and search?’
“I can tell you those items are not off the table at this point,” the sheriff added.
That doesn't sound very convincing. The little shit deffo should be charged straight away.
neukenindekeuken@sh.itjust.works · 9 pts · 308d
You need the DA to bring charges against him. That could take a few days while they review the case.
_cryptagion@anarchist.nexus · 3 pts · 308d
Demdaru@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 308d
Give them a second. Sheriff is still coming to himself after witnessing this level of stupidity. xD
tal@olio.cafe · 51 pts · 309d
"Well" other than the self-inflicted gunshot wound, one imagines.
primrosepathspeedrun@anarchist.nexus · 21 pts · 309d
For a Nazi, that is 'well'
JasonDJ@lemmy.zip · 6 pts · 308d
Alive and...well...
YiddishMcSquidish@lemmy.today · 1 pts · 308d
...kinda dumb
Microtonal_Banana@lemmy.zip · 45 pts · 308d
Totally not a cult of mentally disturbed people.
LiveLM@lemmy.zip · 34 pts · 308d
Mofo shot himself on the leg for no reason lmaooooo
anomnom@sh.itjust.works · 9 pts · 308d
My money is accidentally shout himself in the leg, the tried to cover it with the kidnapping story. But I don’t know the actual timeline, I’m just trying to rationalize the stupidity, which could be a mistake.
seejur@lemmy.world · 13 pts · 308d
No: as per aticle and Op post, he purchased camping supplies beforehand. He planned it
SaveTheTuaHawk@lemmy.ca · 8 pts · 308d
Holstered a loaded gun, safety off, in his belt like on TV. This kid has a future with ICE.
kvasir476@lemmy.world · 32 pts · 309d
Sanest Florida-man
mysticpickle@lemmy.ca · 29 pts · 309d
Bro just Jussie Smollet'ed himself
valarus34@lemmynsfw.com · 5 pts · 308d
Can we now call this guy Jessie S'mullet?
pleaseletmein@lemmy.zip · 28 pts · 308d
(Shoots self) “Ha! Take that, Libs!”
CH3DD4R_G0BL1N@sh.itjust.works · 6 pts · 308d
Will we finally go full tilt and get to see one of them eat actual shit to make a “radical leftist” smell it?
RedRibbonArmy@sh.itjust.works · 5 pts · 308d
I mean the proud boys stick dildos in their asses to "own the libs".
baggachipz@sh.itjust.works · 23 pts · 308d
His last name is a homophone for “spite”. This shit writes itself.
ZoopZeZoop@lemmy.world · 5 pts · 308d
Is that how you pronounce it? I would have pronounced it like "spate."
baggachipz@sh.itjust.works · 6 pts · 308d
Meh, close enough. Just let me have this one
ZoopZeZoop@lemmy.world · 4 pts · 308d
Hey! You know what? It looks like you were right! Nice work, my friend! Pizza and Mario Kart? Or if you want, my son and I have been getting into Lovers in Space. Cute game where characters have to run around your ship to get to different guns, shield, engine, and map to travel across space and kill attackers while freeing friendly animals. We could use a 3rd (And 4th).
possiblylinux127@lemmy.zip · 21 pts · 309d
What kind of idiot shoots themselves in the leg
Zier@fedia.io · 16 pts · 309d
Florida & Texas.
Shdwdrgn@mander.xyz · 15 pts · 309d
Don't forget about cops giving gun-safety classes.
don@lemmy.ca · 1 pts · 308d
DEA agent gives gun safety talk to schoolchildren.
JasonDJ@lemmy.zip · 2 pts · 308d
Is the drug guy really the one who should be talking about firearm safety?
Isn't that like, a totally different agency? One that also handles some of the drugs that we pretend aren't drugs? Man America is weird.
digital_man@lemmy.world · 19 pts · 309d
ICE capades.
PixellatedDave@feddit.uk · 13 pts · 308d
Shouldn't he be on a terrorism charge?
slaneesh_is_right@lemmy.org · 11 pts · 308d
He's not antifa
anomnom@sh.itjust.works · 5 pts · 308d
But he did kidnap a MAGAt.
anton@lemmy.blahaj.zone · 11 pts · 308d
Reminds me of a nazi in Germany that had his friend hack of some of his fingers to blame it on radical leftists.
Adderbox76@lemmy.ca · 10 pts · 308d
Jeez, the alternate timeline where Tom Holland turned to Meth is wild!
Lemminary@lemmy.world · 10 pts · 308d
Sounds like Caden needs to watch some true crime to find out just how stupid he looked to anyone with at least two brain cells.
CmdrShepard49@sh.itjust.works · 9 pts · 308d
We are talking about Florida people here.
SaveTheTuaHawk@lemmy.ca · 7 pts · 308d
Actually not. The only reason why we see these stories from Florida is because the state has unusual transparency laws on reporting offenses.
This type of Florida man shit is taking place across the country we just don't hear about it.
CmdrShepard49@sh.itjust.works · 2 pts · 308d
Thats just a myth people on Reddit repeated over and over again believing it's true. Wacky events get reported on wherever they occur. These wacky events just happen to occur most often in Florida. It has nothing to do with their "Sunshine law."
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Florida_Sunshine_Law
shalafi@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 308d
Part of that lets journalists get enough details to publish quickly, before the story gets stale. We're also the 3rd most populous state, 23 million people and some are going to get up to some weird shit.
SaveTheTuaHawk@lemmy.ca · 4 pts · 308d
and buy a copy of Grey's anatomy, because there are arteries in there.
bigfondue@lemmy.world · 10 pts · 308d
ceph@lemmy.world · 8 pts · 309d
This guy is a full blown loser.
ideonek@piefed.social · 8 pts · 309d
To what purpose?
ultranaut@lemmy.world · 25 pts · 309d
Incite hate while becoming a new MAGA star. If it worked out he could become an influencer and be famous forever as the kid who escaped being kidnapped by scary brown folks.
JasonDJ@lemmy.zip · 2 pts · 308d
So...basically...Tik-Tok "blame it on Mexicans" challenge.
ideonek@piefed.social · 1 pts · 309d
Are Americans well?
don@lemmy.ca · 5 pts · 308d
I guess that depends on which one you’re talking to.
rozodru@piefed.social · 10 pts · 308d
for the grift. There's money to be made being a facist in America because you can con your fellow facists for money. He wanted to be a martyr for "the cause" and then ride that clout for financial gain. go be on some podcasts, start his own podcast, start a crypto currency, etc, etc, etc.
To these idiots shooting oneself in the leg is a minimal price to pay for a potential multi-million dollar payday.
JasonDJ@lemmy.zip · 4 pts · 308d
Tik-Tok "blame it on Mexicans" challenge.
HaraldvonBlauzahn@feddit.org · 7 pts · 308d
What's going on is clearly not good for the mental health of people.
Cocodapuf@lemmy.world · 6 pts · 308d
Why would spider-man do that?!
Seriously, that pic looks like Tom Holland.
phutatorius@lemmy.zip · 6 pts · 308d
Missed his head. Typical.
_cryptagion@anarchist.nexus · 6 pts · 308d
charade_you_are@sh.itjust.works · 5 pts · 309d
Dude shot the wrong part of his body but that's not a surprise
prettybunnys@sh.itjust.works · 4 pts · 308d
K
CatsPajamas@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 2 pts · 308d
Like the woman who carved a B into her forehead in the mirror and said it was Obama supporters. They do this because they believe it's already happening but it's not being reported on so they HAVE to fake the very real thing that that definitely happens so that people will know that it happens!!!!
Wild.
Tetragrade@leminal.space · 1 pts · 308d
Welcome back Đorđe Martinović.