Fact Check

Missing Child: Bella Marie Lamb

A girl named Bella Marie Lamb has been kidnapped from her Columbia, TN, home?

Published Dec. 15, 2011

Claim:

Claim:   A girl named Bella Marie Lamb has been kidnapped from her Columbia, TN, home.


FALSE


Example:   [Collected via e-mail, December 2011]

ABDUCTED CHILD

Have you seen Bella Marie?

If you have any information on the whereabouts of Bella please call (615) 483-6220.

Bella is the daughter of Dixie Durham Lamb and granddaughter of Jerry and Sandra Durham in Hohenwald. Please print and post as many places as you can! Please forward this e-mail to anyone you know across Tennessee especially in the Henderson, TN West Tennessee area and ask them to print and post all over their communities. Bella could be anywhere in Tennessee and in route to INDIANA. If you know anyone in the Indiana area please contact them and have them distribute anywhere in the state! She was kidnapped Tuesday night (12-13-11) from Columbia, TN.


 

Origins:   This alert about a girl named Bella Marie Lamb supposedly kidnapped from her Columbia, Tennessee, home began circulating on the Facebook social networking site in mid-December 2011. However, the [Columbia] Daily Herald reported on 15 December 2011 that local police had said Bella was not abducted; she was the subject of a custody dispute and was in the care of her court-appointed guardian:



Columbia Police say they are not currently investigating any kind of child abduction after a poster circulated online Wednesday claiming a young girl had been abducted.

"Someone in the family made a poster saying the child was abducted," Sgt. Jeff Duncan said.

The poster, which was emailed, states the girl was abducted from Columbia on [Dec. 13], according to a police press release. Police say the allegation is false but there are custody issues involved.

The child is in custody of the parent who was granted temporary custody by the courts, the release said.


Last updated:   15 December 2011


Sources:




    The Columbia Daily Herald.   "Abduction Claim Proves Inaccurate."

    15 December 2011.


David Mikkelson founded the site now known as snopes.com back in 1994.

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