Abduction hoax suspect charged with false public alarm

A woman from Fort Lee who allegedly claimed to be abducted at gunpoint in Manalapan last week might spend three to five years in prison if she's found guilty of creating a false public alarm.

Marian Petro, 46, was found Tuesday in a hotel in Willow Grove, Pennsylvania, according to information from acting Monmouth County Prosecutor Chris Gramiccioni.

The 911 call triggered response by local, county, state and federal law enforcement agents that extended continuously for days while investigators desperately sought to substantiate it.

According to authorities, the woman who placed the call at about 6:35 AM on August 19 did not identify herself, but said that she was forced to the side of Route 33 near Sweetmans Lane while driving, placed in the rear of a black Mercedes Benz and held at gunpoint by a black male with dreadlocks.

Investigators, frantically assembling details, fanned out as far as Hulses Corner Road and Fort Plains Road in Howell Township, with no trace of the caller, vehicle or witnesses, authorities said.

They finally traced her to the hotel where she was unharmed, in the company of extended family, and apprehended, authorities said.

Petro was placed in the Montgomery Township Correctional Facility in Lower Providence, Pennsyvlania, to await extradition proeceediings and transfer to New Jersey.