A North Carolina husband, who faked the disappearance of his criminal spouse so she could avoid jail, now faces five years in prison himself after pleading guilty to committing the weird crime.
Paul Arrington of Lowell was charged with conspiracy and fraud for executing a plot in the summer of 2014 that involved misleading a lifeguard to believe that his wife Amy Arrington had drowned while swimming at Myrtle Beach, SC.
According to federal prosecutors, the defendant then filed an official but false missing persons report with state authorities and a fruitless search for Mrs. Arrington was launched, during which she fled to Florida to hide out -- with forged identity papers.
Both the U.S. Coast Guard and a handful of South Carolina law enforcement agencies took part in the water-recovery effort, before finally realizing that Amy Arrington’s alleged disappearance and drowning was bogus.
She pled guilty in June 2015 to the same set of charges brought against her husband for their costly criminal hoax, but was additionally ordered to pay nearly $50,000 in restitution.
