An image circulating on social media purports to show an unidentified woman in the hospital after a near-fatal attack.
“Need help with identifying this young woman that was mugged, stabbed and left for dead alongside road in Mt Juliet,” reads the start of an Oct. 21 Facebook post that was shared more than 300 times in a week. “She is in a coma right now and the deputies are not able to identify her. Let’s bump this post so it may reach to people who can be able to identify her.”
Other versions of the claim said the woman was victimized in places including Florida, Georgia and New Jersey.
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But the image included in the posts comes from a years-old blog post about the dangers of alcohol, not a recent crime. Police departments in areas where the claims have circulated said no such incidents occurred in their jurisdictions.
A misinformation expert previously told USA TODAY copy-and-paste tactics like this are used by scammers to identify potential targets.
USA TODAY reached out to the social media user who shared the claim for comment.
Though the posts claim the photo shows a recent crime victim, it actually dates back several years.
Hanna Lottritz, a student at the University of Nevada-Reno, included it in a January 2016 blog post about her near-fatal case...
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