FACT CHECK: Did A Viral TikTok Video Show An Arkansas Girl Who Has Been Missing Since 2014?
A post shared on Facebook claims a viral TikTok video shows Cassie Compton, an Arkansas girl who has been missing for seven years.
Verdict: False
The Stuttgart Police Department has said the woman in the video is not Compton. The investigation into Compton’s disappearance is “active and ongoing,” according to Stuttgart Police Chief Mark Duke.
Fact Check:
Compton went missing from Stuttgart, Arkansas, at the age of 15 back in September 2014, according to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. (RELATED: Does This Image Show Chris Evans Wearing A ‘Keep America Trumpless’ Shirt?)
Around the seventh anniversary of Compton’s disappearance, screen recordings of a TikTok video that originally went viral in January started resurfacing on Facebook. In the video, a young woman with what look like bruises on her eyes can be seen sitting between two people in the back of a car. Social media users have claimed the young woman in the TikTok video is Compton.
While the female in the video does bear some resemblance to the missing Arkansas girl, she is not Compton. Duke, the Stuttgart Police chief, said in January of this year that the woman in the video was interviewed by the FBI and confirmed to not be Compton, according to news station KATV.
“After a 1000 plus phone calls, as many emails and messages, it was determined thru the combined efforts of SPD, the FBI & ASP that the mystery girl believed to be Cassie Compton in a Tik-Tok video was not actually her,” the Stuttgart Police Department also said on Facebook back in January. “The FBI were able to locate the girl, identify her and interview her.”
Another person, identified as Haley Grace Philips, claimed on Instagram to be the young woman in the TikTok video, according to Stuttgart Daily Leader. She said in an Instagram video that the purple markings around her eyes happened when she “was robbed this weekend” and that she was “not kidnapped,” the outlet reported in January.
“The viral video was not Cassie. She was positively identified by another agency,” Duke confirmed in an email to Check Your Fact. “The Compton case is still an active and ongoing investigation.”