Missing Marion County 17-year-old lied about his disappearance, deputies say

Hello Marion County citizens. Sheriff Woods here. I know many of you have been deeply invested into this case of Caden Speight. When you heard the initial, alarming information that was being given to us, many of you even joined in to help in any way you could. I want to commend my deputies and detectives that sprang into action and worked through the night and into the next day on this. In addition, we also had help from other state and federal agencies.

Because of their hard work, the initial details that Caden texted to his family, were proven to be false. Completely made up. We did find evidence of a single gunshot where Caden left his truck. However, his claims that he had been shot and abducted were quickly disproven. We then learned that he had purchased a bicycle, tent and camping supplies just prior to him reporting this.

There were an alarming amount of red flags initially but, we also have to fully investigate until we know otherwise. We also had witnesses that contradicted the initial information.
Caden 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, causing a non-life-threatening injury just prior to walking out to the roadway where he would be located by citizens in Williston. There is ZERO chance that Caden’s gunshot wound came from any type of assailant.

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.

Right now, we are still processing all of the evidence in this case and I don’t want to make any statements on that until we have fully examined it all.
Naturally, my detectives had a lot of questions for Caden, however, his parents refuse to allow my detectives to speak with him.

Again, thank you citizens for your tips and information that you sent in and when we do have any updated information on this case, we will provide you with that.