OCALA, Fla. – The Marion County Sheriff’s Office was able to reconstruct the minute-by-minute movements of a teenager who authorities said mysteriously faked his own kidnapping with the help of artificial intelligence, leading to an intensive manhunt across Florida until the ploy unraveled, according to newly released court records.
The sheriff’s office said this week it arrested Caden Speight, 17, of Dunnellon, Florida, on a felony weapons charge and for obstructing justice. He also faces two misdemeanor charges relating to the hoax. Speight – who blamed his kidnapping on unidentified Hispanic men in a text to his mother – was in the custody of the Department of Juvenile Justice, the sheriff’s office said.
Even though he is a juvenile and being charged in juvenile court, WUFT News is identifying Speight in the case because the sheriff openly named him during his press conference, which was streamed and archived online, and in social media posts from the sheriff's office, and because he was identified by name weeks ago in a regional alert when authorities believed he was actually the victim of foul play.
A sheriff’s spokesman, Lt. Paul Bloom, said the investigation to find Speight when he was first reported missing cost at least $14,000 in public money for the use of aviation drones, search and rescue teams, forensics and coordination with the FBI. The Florida Department of Law Enforcement and the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission also helped in the case.
“He’s looking at helping taxpayers recoup that cost,” Bloom said.
Speight’s motive remains unknown. His parents, Darren and Anne Marie Speight, declined to allow law enforcement officers to interview him and have only been communicating through their attorneys. His parents did not immediately respond Wednesday to phone calls or text messages.
“We’re answering the who, what, when and where,” Bloom said, “but the why, he’s the only one who has the answer to that.”
Newly released court records in the case showed that Speight’s movements were being tracked by the Life360 app on his phone up until the moment of the fake kidnapping. His mother provided her phone to deputies, who were able to reconstruct Speight’s movements.
“We were able to get a complete timeline,” a deputy wrote in Speight’s arrest affidavit.
Speight triggered an Amber Alert on Sept. 25 for his disappearance, after he sent a text message about 4 p.m. to his family that he’d been abducted by four Hispanic men.
“I need help being shot at 4 Hispanics armed white van one driver,” the text said. “I’m hit.”
Authorities found Speight’s truck with a bullet hole through the windshield and blood splatters inside the car, but no sign of Speight. The gun was a .45-caliber pistol owned by Speight’s father, records said.
The sheriff’s office said it turned out the teen fired the bullet and had planted his own blood and damaged phone at the scene before fleeing with camping gear and a mountain bike. Speight had purchased the bike, a tent, a sleeping bag, a hiking backpack and a pillow from Walmart less than an hour before reporting his own abduction.
Speight’s search history on ChatGPT, an AI service, included looking for instructions on collecting his blood without causing pain and information about Mexican cartels, records showed.
On Sept. 26, police officers in nearby Williston found Speight with a handgun and a self-inflicted gunshot wound to his leg, officials said. When law enforcement approached him, according to the arrest report, Speight told them he had his father’s handgun and that he had been abducted, dumped on the side of the road with a bike and then shot by his kidnappers.
The injury shattered the teen’s femur and required medical attention.
Speight was taken to UF Health Shands in Gainesville, where he was treated for his injuries, according to the report. After his condition was stabilized, law enforcement attempted to speak with him but his parents refused any further contact, said Bloom.
Deputies arrested Speight after he was released from medical care.
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