Viral post about ‘missing girl’ incites panic, but woman was never missing

A Facebook post made by a Highland Lakes resident around 8 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 22, claimed a young woman was missing after being approached by two men at a Marble Falls gas station. The post went viral, shared by thousands of people in Texas and across the country, but according to Marble Falls police, the woman, Olivia Corbin, was never missing or in danger.

The post, made by Casey Blair, was shared over 30,000 times in less than two hours. The entire Marble Falls police force was involved or on standby during an investigation.

“(Corbin) was never missing,” Marble Falls Police Department Capt. Jimmy Cole told DailyTrib.com on Wednesday morning after things had died down.

Blair’s original Facebook post has since been removed from her page, but it read as follows (unedited except for details about Corbin’s car):

“Please HELP!!!!

My friends daughter was headed home from college – got gas in Marble Falls (Round up Valero) approached by two men while one the phone with mom …phone is now turned off, life 360 turned off 

Driving (car make and model omitted)

TX License plates- (license number omitted)

Olivia Corbin

5’7”

Blonde hair

Blue eyes

MF POLICE have been notified”

Corbin was reported home, safe and sound at around 10 p.m., roughly two hours after the post was made, and according to MFPD reports, she was unaware she was “missing.” The woman’s phone had reportedly died while she was driving home from San Marcos to Granbury, and she was unreachable.

According to Capt. Cole, Olivia Corbin’s mother, Tiffany Corbin, became worried when her daughter did not respond to text messages. She noticed that Olivia’s Life 360 app, which shares locations, had stopped functioning at the Valero store at the intersection of Broadway and U.S. 281 in Marble Falls.

The Corbin family was not connected to the viral post in any way, according to the MFPD. Police reports state the family does not know or is even familiar with Blair. Tiffany Corbin responded to the ordeal on Facebook.

Capt. Cole told DailyTrib.com that surveillance footage from the gas station revealed Olivia Corbin stopped there but was not approached by two men. The detail of the two men approaching her appears to have originated in Blair’s post.

Marble Falls officers and detectives were swarmed with requests to investigate and reports of the “missing” Corbin following Blair’s post.

“To say the least, we got ‘bombarded,’” Cole said. 

In the aftermath of the post and investigation, Blair offered an explanation for why she put the word out.

“The information was given to me by a police officer friend that is a mutual friend of the Corbins and myself,” she wrote in a response to questions from DailyTrib.com. “I was asked to make a post with the information sent to me and help get the word out. I did just that: I activated our network of eyes and ears in our very close knit community. There was a sense of urgency as the parents had already reached out to the police and were at that time driving to Marble Falls from Granbury. The best possible outcome has come that she is home safe and sound.”

Blair’s post was liked over 1,000 times, received more than 1,200 comments, and was shared over 37,000 by Wednesday morning before it was removed.

dakota@thepicayune.com