Amber Alert SHOCKER: Florida Teen’s Chilling Text Wasn’t What It Seemed…

the shooting or the the abduction uh by. some folks in a in a van that was. unfounded. That is uh not been able to. we've not been able to verify that at. all and in fact uh confirm just the. opposite. >> A chilling text from Florida teen. Cadence Spite set off a statewide Amber. Alert, frantic searches and fears of a. violent abduction. But within hours, this case took a stunning turn. The van, the gunman, even the kidnapping all in. question. We are going to break down all. the twists in this bizarre and rapidly.

developing case with a local private. investigator with exclusive insight into. what really may have happened here. Welcome to Sidebar, presented by Law and. Crime. I'm Jesse Weber. Okay, so this case all began with just a. single terrifying text. It's a message. that no mother could ever imagine. receiving from her child. I need help. Four Hispanics in a white van. One. driver. I'm shot. Can you imagine. receiving that? That was the text that.

17-year-old Florida teen Cadence Spite. apparently sent to his mother on. Thursday, September 25th. And within. hours, law enforcement issued a. statewide Amber Alert. Deputies in. Marian County, they mobilized. helicopters and K-9 units and patrol. teams. Social media quickly filled with. desperate pleas from family, friends, neighbors. This story blew up. But then. I will tell you the story took a very. unexpected turn because while.

authorities searched for a white van. with four armed men, someone spotted. Caden and what they saw didn't match the. chilling message that he had apparently. sent. And that only deepened an already. strange and rapidly developing mystery. So what really happened? Well, let's. break it down. So, on Thursday at around. 400 p.m., deputies responded to a report. of a missing teen supposedly caught in a. shooting near the 12,800 block of. Southwest Highway 484 in Denell and.

Marian County. And at the scene, they. find a vehicle belonging to Kaden Spite. No Caden, though, nowhere to be found. And almost immediately, that is when the. case escalated. The Florida Department. of Law Enforcement, the FDLE, they. issued an Amber Alert posting on. Facebook, quote, "A Florida Amber Alert. has been issued for Caden Spite. A white. male, 17 years old, 6 feet tall, 150. lbs, brown hair, brown eyes, last seen. in the area that I just mentioned. He. may be in the company of four unknown.

males, possibly Hispanic, traveling in a. light colored van. If located, do not. approach. Call 911 immediately." Now, Spite was last seen wearing a t-shirt. and blue jeans. He was considered. endangered, possibly the victim of the. shooting, right? And the story was. terrifying, right? A teenager apparently. shot, stuffed into a van, four. kidnappers on the run. So, the panic. spread quickly online and at the center. of it all was one piece of supposed. evidence. Kaden's mother, Annie Spite,

shared the alarming message that she. said she received directly from Kaden, which read, "Again, I need help four. Hispanics in a white van. and one driver. I'm shot. That single text fueled the. initial panic and it led deputies to. believe that Kaden had been kidnapped. He was in immediate danger. The family's. desperation obviously was palpable. His. sister, Bailey Spike Clark, pleaded on. Facebook, "God, I just want him home. I. can't sleep, eat, or do anything, not.

knowing where he is, and if he is safe, please don't stop searching or looking.". Now, meanwhile, search teams, they. scoured the area with helicopters, K-9. units, patrol officers, social media. filled with frantic posts. But then, by. early this morning, things changed. The. Marian County Sheriff's Office began to. reassess the original claims. And in an. official update, they announced, quote, "Primarily at this time, there is no. evidence to indicate that he was taken. by four Hispanic men in a light colored. van. It is possible that he left the.

incident location on a black bicycle. with a red and gray tent which he. purchased at Walmart on Southwest 19th. Avenue Road in Ocala just prior to this. incident being reported. So the question. of course is what did investigators end. up finding out? Now we'll get there, okay? But first to help me break all. this down, I want to bring on criminal. investigator Billy Lane. Billy, so great. to see you. first of all, explain your. organization and also explain how you. got involved in this case as was.

developing. Thank you. Thank you for always having. us on here. So, we have a nonprofit. organization called We Are the. Essentials for the Missing. We're based. out of Central Florida. We're a. nonprofit. We go out and search for. missing people on behalf of the family. for free. Our job is to help gap the. bridge between law enforcement and the. family when they need uh the assistance. of an additional uh set of eyes and set. of feet on the ground to actually go out. and start looking for their missing.

loved one when they don't have the. answers from law enforcement or their. circumstances that where law enforcement. is unable to provide those answers. So. this case here started for us like most. other cases. Uh we got an alert on. social media that this young man had. went missing. Now, you can imagine we. get alerts all the time throughout the. week, sometimes multiple alerts a day. about different missing people. But this. started to progress differently because. of the narrative of what was being said. about how he went missing. Um, and then. within minutes and hours, we were.

receiving hundreds of uh messages and. tags and Facebook and social media about. this case, begging for our involvement. in the case. And at that point, within a. couple of hours, we had a Amber alert. that came out. And then that really set. I think that uh the internet and the the. news on fire about this case because it. was so unique and so bizarre. >> Now you might think by watching Sidebar. you've seen it all. I will tell you. think again. 50 ways to catch a killer. brings you real cases where detectives.

had to flip the script to take down cold. bloodooded killers. Hosted by 50 Cent. This isn't your typical crime show, okay? It's a highstakes twist ride into. the minds of investigators who think. outside the badge to break the case. From unforgettable setups to shocking. reveals, every episode proves when. killers think they got away with murder. Think again. Watch 50 ways to catch a. killer with 50 Cent exclusively on Fox. Nation. Yeah. What were your initial. impressions of this? I mean, the idea of. a text message. Uh my gosh, it's every.

parent's worst nightmare. I mean, to. receive something like that, you're. hearing this description. What are what. are the initial steps you take? What was. your initial reaction? I mean, what do. you do once you have this Amber Alert? Once you have this idea of this message, what do you do? >> So, we were shocked like everybody else, you know. So, we start breaking. everything down. Possibilities versus. probabilities. We start looking at where. the incident happened at on the street. uh middle broad daylight 4:30 in the. afternoon, allegedly shot through the. front windshield of the car. So, we're.

assuming that the asalants came from the. front of the vehicle. Uh my initial. thoughts other than the kidnapping that. they were uh talking about was the fact. that this could have been a road rage. incident. Maybe he cut somebody off, they cut him off, got out of the. vehicle, shot at the uh the vehicle, and. possibly hit him inside the vehicle. Now, what didn't make sense to me and. our team was that you don't want to. kidnap somebody after you shoot them. It's very messy. You're you're trying to. take somebody that are is injured,

that's bleeding. There's a lot of crime. scene. There's a lot of DNA everywhere. and what good would that do? What was. these people going to benefit from this? Um, so based on the whole narrative, it. just didn't add up. It didn't hold water. because you have to think it all the way. through. Hey, why would these people. target him? Why would they do it at this. location? Why would they do it at this. time of the day? The possibility of. somebody seeing it, I believe, was. extreme because of the time of the day.

They if they were targeting him to. kidnap him, they could have done this at. any time, whether it be him leaving. school, home, work, and a much more. isolated location. So that was. concerning for us and it it raised a lot. of red flags and even our team. internally we were talking about what. was going on and when should we try to. be involved and effective but we didn't. want to interfere with law enforcement. because we want them to do everything in. their power to save them. >> So what happens by this afternoon. everything changes. Everything changes.

when the Marian County Sheriff's Office. released these images capturing Kaden. completely alone walking with his. bicycle. There's no van. There's no. Hispanic men. There's not even any signs. of panic. No signs of a shooting. No. signs that anything was a miss. A local. witness, Jackson Mccclure, even told. WESH2, "I passed by here around 4:00 and there. was a boy getting something out of the. truck and shoving it into a book bag. And then about 10 to 15 minutes later, I. believe he drove by my house on a.

bicycle. He looked normal and he wasn't. struggling to ride his bicycle." And. then during a press conference this. afternoon, deputies issued this update. >> The shooting or the the abduction uh by. some folks in a in a van that was. unfounded. That is uh not been able to. we've not been able to verify that at. all and in fact uh confirm just the. opposite. What we did find out is that. uh Kaden Spate did stop off at a couple. local stores include Walmart prior to.

just prior to this incident occurring. and we've distributed some photos of him. there at the Walmart. He purchased a. bicycle, uh a sleeping tent, sleeping. bag, and I believe he has a backpack. with him, wearing jeans and a t-shirt, and evidence suggests that he left from. that scene on the bicycle. >> So, what initially seemed like this. violent kidnapping quickly unraveled. Deputies soon confirmed that while Kaden. was still considered endangered, he had.

not been kidnapped. Instead, evidence. suggested he left the scene on his own. riding the bicycle he had purchased. earlier that day. And then even more. news came that turned this whole. investigation in another direction. The. reaction to the news on the Marian. County Facebook post was kind of mixed. One user wrote, "Honestly, I was. thinking how suspicious it was that he. texts a family member that he's in. danger instead of calling his family or. even the police for help if he was truly. in danger. I hope it's more of a case of. a runaway instead of a kidnapping,

though. Others expressed unwavering. concern and prayers. I'll still keep my. eye out no matter what. I would want. that if that was my child, whatever he's. facing and going through, praying he is. safe and reunited with his family. And. then after that dramatic twist, there. was finally some relief when the Marian. County Sheriff's Office issued this. update. Kaden has been located safe in. Willist. This investigation is still. ongoing. More updates will be provided. as they become available. Okay. Now,

Billy, what do you make of that? What do. you make of that update? >> Um, it's troubling. It's it's. disheartening sometimes because you. think that what you see and the. circumstances that you're responding to. is everybody takes it for face value. And honestly, I think what I had a. problem with and our team had a problem. with was could he get that text message. off before asalants were able to advance. upon his car to take him out of the.

vehicle? Could he have the wherewithal. to be able to make that text message and. send it before they got to him? Or the. other concern was the phone was broken. So, did the asalants who allegedly took. him out of the vehicle, did they send. that text message and maybe was trying. to put law enforcement onto a different. path? Maybe they made it all up and they. really didn't. That wasn't true. Maybe. those people that they were talking. about, the four Hispanic males in the. white van was a total throwoff. So, law.

enforcement's chasing down a ghost and. they're really getting into a red truck. and they're, you know, whoever. So, that's the concern that we look at when. we start looking at these things. But to. come to find out that he purchased the. bike in advance and that he got on the. bike and drove away and then this. situation unfolded like it did, it's. it's disturbing and it's disheartening. and unfortunately I think it it affects. the public because it's a crying wolf. scenario and we don't want the public to.

think we went through all this emotional. drama with this family for nothing, you. know, because the public helps us. It. helps law enforcement. They're the ones. who have their eyes out. They're the. ones who were looking like this. gentleman here who actually seen ride. passing the bike. You know, that's a. major clue. And whoever located the. video, which I believe was the sheriff. department, amazing job. Kudos goes to. them because they stuck with it. They. didn't give up. They kept on this case. and they continued to investigate this. case until they were able to have some. type of resolution.

>> What happens now in the investigation? They need answers as to what happened. here. What does that look like? Oh man, I think it's going to be a long. debrief with the young man. Um, ask him. why he did this, what happened, maybe. going back through his cell phone trying. to find out if he was if he was. manipulated. There could be some level. of exploitation here that we not aware. of. Maybe somebody convinced him to do. this for whatever reason. Um, so we just. don't know the full story and I would.

suggest to everybody not to jump to a. conclusion until we know that full story. and figure out exactly what happened. I. would like to say I'm thankful and our. team is thankful and we're we're we're. gracious that God gave this young man. another day to be on earth with us. because there's too many of these. stories that turn out to be tragic and. we're shedding tears not being thankful. that he is still here with us. Now, whatever that circumstance is, law. enforcement will get to it. I'm sure the. family will deal with it. But right now, I believe the family needs some time to.

deal with whatever's going on, whatever. crisis he was in or whatever situation. lured him to leave his home. He seemed. like he was a great young man with a. great uh supporting household. And. >> and what's interesting also is they. changed it, my understanding, was from. abduction to endangered but voluntary. departure. In other words, right, it's. not that the alarm I is done. It's not. that the risk is over. There's still a. concern that this person is missing,

might be endangered, might be in. trouble. It's just not a case of that. they were taken, that they were. kidnapped. >> Correct. So, he could have been. manipulated and lured to do this. As you. can understand, exploitation throughout. the country is all about grooming people. and getting them to do something that. they normally wouldn't do. So until you. have him with you, you don't know what. the circumstances are. Yeah, he might. have purchased a bike, he might have. purchased a tent, and that might draw a. picture of a conclusion that we may be.

able to come to that he voluntarily. walked away from his life. But until you. really find him and make sure a he's. okay still because you don't know, this. still could have been another scenario. that we're not aware of. He could have. done that to create time that allow him. to go someplace and do something that. would be unthinkable. Look, I I'm just happy he's okay. Um, this could have been a radically. different situation, a radically. different conversation. Um, and we might. not even have had a conclusion uh this.

quickly. Obviously, there are still. questions. Obviously, people will have. opinions out there, but I I agree with. you. Let's find out the facts. Let's. find out the story. And I will just say. kudos to the online community. Kudos to. law enforcement for acting so quickly, issuing that Amber Alert. Um, but again, we're just happy that he's safe. Um, we. will find out what happened. Um, and. Billy Lane, thank you so much for the. work that you and your team do as well. >> God bless. Thank you so much. >> And that is all we have for you right.

now here on Sidebar. Everybody, thank. you so much for joining us. And as. always, please subscribe on YouTube, Apple Podcast, Spotify, wherever you. should get your podcast. You can follow. me on X or Instagram. I'm Jesse Weber. We'll see you next time. [Music].