The Chamblee woman who claimed she and her 5-year-old daughter had been abducted by two men allegedly fabricated the story. Now she’s the one facing charges, police said Monday.
A statewide alert was issued Dec. 23 after Isabel Godinez Lopez called her husband from a restaurant along I-75 and said she and the girl had been taken against their will and were traveling south, police previously said. Lopez described the car she and the girl were traveling in, and several police agencies assisted in the search for the two.
Hours later, a trooper with the Georgia State Patrol spotted the car in Lowndes County, and two men inside were arrested, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution previously reported. The two men, Lopez’s ex-husband, Luis Coc-Reyes, 27, and Porfirio Alvarez, 25, were each charged with kidnapping.
But when Reyes and Alavarez were transported from south Georgia to the DeKalb County jail, they told investigators a different version of what happened, police said Monday night.
“They said Isabel called and asked them to come get her and even gave them directions to where she stayed in Chamblee,” Marc Johnson, Chamblee city manager, said in an emailed statement.
Although Lopez initially reiterated that she and her daughter had been abducted, she allegedly admitted Monday that she had lied, Johnson said.
Charges have been dropped against Coc-Reyes and Alvarez, Johnson said. Lopez was arrested and charged with a felony count of making false statements.
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