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Pasco woman faked kidnapping, deputies say

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By LISA A. DAVIS | The Tampa Tribune

Published: June 11, 2009

Updated: 06/11/2009 04:11 pm

Christina Marie Nardi

TRINITY - Last Friday the text messages began around 2:45 p.m. and read like a suspense novel.

The first reading: "I got 1 minute, gun to my head, I'm hurt and 2500 ransom, 52 don't know them, answer asap"

Two minutes later the second was sent: "I'm being held hostage."

Sixteen minutes later: "Took all my money, beat and drugged me on heroin help."

The chilling exchange was between 34-year-old Christina Marie Nardi and her roommate, Jeff Kendrick, 41. But as it turns out, sheriff's officials say, the texts were a work of fiction.

That afternoon at least 37 Pasco deputies spent hours searching west Pasco County for Nardi, eventually finding her safe in J. B. Starkey Wilderness Park near New Port Richey. On Thursday morning, with her lawyer by her side, she turned herself in to authorities at the Trinity sheriff's office substation for faking the kidnapping, sheriff's office spokesman Kevin Doll said.

"We spent thousands of dollars looking for her," Doll said. "…In these tight budget times it's ridiculous to expend money like that."

The text messages continued for over two hours and since Kendrick called for help, so did the search. Nardi's11-year-old son also received text messages from his mother's phone. "She's dead now bye bye." And: "I I got her and you wont ever see her again."

At first, deputies searched areas up and down U.S. 19, along State Road 52 and beyond for Nardi's silver Dodge Caravan. One message states she was now on Tampa Road in Pinellas County, so authorities there and in Hillsborough were called to assist, Doll said. At some point, Nardi's cell phone company told sheriff's deputies they got a "ping" from the phone in Starkey Park. A sheriff's office pilot, meanwhile, took flight in the helicopter. The police dogs and deputies searched below.

In the park, cabins were searched and motorists were stopped. The county used its reverse 911 system to alert 2,400 homes in the area.

Deputies and detectives investigated who could have been behind the abduction, learning that Nardi had filed for restraining orders against two different men in recent years. Deputies searched her home for clues, too, finding none except for a large bag of marijuana, according to reports.

At 6:23 p.m., Nardi dialed 911 and told dispatchers she was injured and in the woods but could hear the helicopter above. At 6:44 p.m. deputies found her in fetal position under thick brush, her purse at her side. She had been kidnapped, raped, beaten and dragged into the woods by a 6-foot-4 black man with dreads, she told deputies, according to a report. She said she was abducted from a 7-Eleven.

Curiously, some deputies noted in their reports, she didn't appear to be beaten. In fact, the scratches on her body appeared to be consistent with marks the brush would have made when walking through, not being dragged as she had reported, deputies stated.

When they took her to a local hospital, she refused to let blood be drawn, Doll said. And deputies discovered all calls going out from her cell phone had been deleted, including her 911 call. Nardi denied deleting any call records.

On Thursday, Nardi admitted she had lied, according to her arrest affidavit. She said she had called a drug dealer on Friday and met him and another man at Starkey Park and she went with them to some house.

She told deputies she owed the drug dealer $500 but she only had $250, according to the affidavit. She said she had been threatened with a gun and was made to send the text messages. Nardi, according to the report, told detectives she was dropped off by the drug dealer at Starkey Park and she was high and must have stumbled into the woods and awoke when the helicopter was flying above her and called 911, the affidavit states.

Nardi refused to give authorities information about the drug dealers because she is afraid of them, according to the report.

The search, according to Doll, cost an undetermined amount but it was thousands of dollars in man hours and resources. The helicopter flight alone cost $400, he said.

"All this is directly related to her actions which began with her drug binge," Doll said.

Nardi, of 3239 Salisbury Drive, Holiday, was taken to the Land O' Lakes Jail and booked in on a misdemeanor charge of making a false report to law enforcement of an alleged crime.

Despite the cost to law enforcement, her bail was a cool $250.

Reporter Lisa A. Davis can be reached at (727) 815-1083.

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