An 18-year-old MSU student has been arrested and charged with a misdemeanor after falsely reporting that she was raped on campus early Friday morning.Freshman elementary education major Anna Elizabeth Owens of Holly Springs affirmed to campus police late Friday afternoon that the incident never happened. She was later charged for falsely reporting a crime.
Oktibbeha County Chief Deputy George Carrithers said Owens was released from Oktibbeha County Jail Friday evening on a $250 Justice Court bond.
According to the original police report, the student claimed she picked up her alleged attacker at a social function on campus and drove him to the Northeast Village campus dormitory.
She stated that the man raped her in her car near the complex.
“[The incident] was … reported to the department sometime between 2 and 2:30 a.m. Friday morning,” MSU Police Chief Georgia Lindley said. “Investigators were called to the [Oktibbeha County] hospital to talk to the young lady there.”
Lindley said the student confessed to fabricating the account sometime around 4:45 p.m.
“[The fabrication] is most unfortunate,” MSU dean of students Mike White said, offering no further comment.
Lindley said she didn’t have any knowledge of a motive.
Had the rape actually occurred, it would have been the second instance in which a sexual assault took place on campus in the past month.
Multiple attempts to reach MSU President Robert H. ‘Doc’ Foglesong about the matter were unsuccessful.
“We take the security of our students very seriously, and this has raised unfounded alarm with both students and parents. Even though this is an unfortunate incident, we encourage students who encounter suspicious circumstances to report them. Safety is always our top priority,” he said in an MSU press release.