Officers with the Picayune Police Department spent several hours searching for a missing woman Wednesday that turned out not to exist.
Officers responded to the call at 10:33 a.m. at an RV park on Stafford Road in reference to an unconscious man who appeared to be under the influence of narcotics, Assistant Chief Jeremy Magri said.
The man said he was mud-riding in the wooded area between Ridge Road and Stafford Road with a female Tuesday night when the truck got stuck, Magri said. According to his story, the man left the woman in the truck and wandered the woods throughout the night to find help.
As a result of those statements, officers, including Magri and Picayune Police Chief Bryan Dawsey, spent several hours searching the area on foot and on four-wheelers to find the woman, fearing she had overdosed.
Meanwhile, the man was transported to Highland Community Hospital for treatment, Magri said.
After spending several hours looking for the truck in the woods, Magri said he was able to talk with the man and discovered that he was never driving in that area with a woman.
After speaking with the man’s brother, Magri said he believes the man took the truck after his brother fell asleep, purchased and ingested illegal narcotics, parked the car near a shopping center off Highway 43 South and took off running in the woods thinking he was being chased.
The brother recovered the truck in the parking lot Wednesday morning.
No charges were pressed as of Wednesday afternoon.