Casper police on Thursday arrested a woman who allegedly faked her own kidnapping in order to extort money from her father.

Alysha Ann Dahl, 25, was booked into jail on recommended charges of blackmail and interference. She will likely make her initial appearance in Natrona County Circuit Court at 2 p.m. Friday.

Charging papers say at roughly 10:45 a.m. Thursday, a Moorcroft police officer reported a possible kidnapping situation occurring in Casper. The situation had been reported by the father of the alleged kidnapping victim -- the alleged victim was later determined to be Dahl.

Dahl's father reported receiving text messages from Dahl's phone, sent by someone who identified themselves as "Boogeyman." The purported kidnapper said they had kidnapped Dahl because she owed $350.

"Boogeyman" texted Dahl's father that if he sent at least $130 via Western Union, the father could at least speak with Dahl over the phone. "Boogeyman" later texted that for $80, Dahl could have access to her phone, but $130 would be the price of her freedom.

In a period of roughly 10 minutes at about 10 a.m., "Boogeyman" threatened to harm Dahl and later said, "I have cut one side of our daughters toung [sic] maybe she will learn from daddy's mistakes."

"I have the knife ready to kill her I'm not playing," Boogeyman texted Dahl's father.

A Casper police sergeant called Dahl's phone, pretending to be a friend of Dahl's father, in order to get "Boogeyman" to meet and exchange money. A female answered Dahl's phone, apparently calm and not distraught. The sergeant claimed to be a helpful friend who simply wanted to deliver the ransom money, but the female who answered -- later determined to have been Dahl -- ended the call.

Based on officers' belief that Dahl was in physical danger, police asked the phone company to "ping" Dahl's cell phone in order to determine its location. The phone was located in the 1200 block of S. Poplar, where police learned Dahl often stayed with a female friend.

The Casper police sergeant felt that the whole situation seemed strange: the calmness of the female voice that answered Dahl's phone, the fact that her phone was located at a close friend's residence, and -- most notably -- the fact that the dollar amounts which "Boogeyman" had asked for happened to directly correlate with the street prices for one-half gram, one gram and one-eighth of an ounce of methamphetamine.

The sergeant also had information that Dahl was an active methamphetamine user and was involved in the sales of methamphetamine.

Officers went to the home of Dahl's friend, located at 1222 S. Poplar St., in an attempt to find Dahl and her unknown kidnapper. As officers approached the home from the alley, they saw Dahl walk outside.

Dahl confirmed her identity and said that, aside from a sore back, she was fine and not in danger. She initially said she had no knowledge of the kidnapping allegations or the text messages that had been sent to her father.

When police asked for her phone number, Dahl provided a number that did not match the number which had been sending the texts, and which the sergeant had called. Dahl claimed that the other phone had been stolen, but police informed her that they had "pinged" the phone to the house Dahl had just exited.

"After attempting to lie her way through a fictitious story, [Dahl] eventually conceded that she did in fact still have the phone in question (with the matching phone number)," the affidavit states.

Dahl allegedly went on to admit that she had faked the kidnapping in order to "hustle" her own father for money. She "showed little to no remorse for the act," police said in the affidavit.

The sergeant pointed out to Dahl that the feigned kidnapping tied up the entire dayshift of the Moorcroft Police Department, as well as the Casper Police Department's only street supervisor for the day and one-third of the Casper police day shift, which could have meant that real emergencies may have gone uncovered in both cities. Dahl reportedly called her father and had a "brief and obviously unapologetic" conversation with him.

Dahl was arrested, though she tried to resist arrest and allegedly did a poor job of faking a seizure. EMS responded and took Dahl to Wyoming Medical Center, where it was confirmed that Dahl had not had a seizure.

Dahl was taken to jail, and her father confirmed that he did wish to have charges pressed against Dahl.

More From 107.9 Jack FM