A 23-year-old Jeannette woman who pretended to be on the road to graduating from Penn State instead found herself behind bars Tuesday night for concocting what state police allege was a coverup of her disappearance.
Chloe Stein claimed in a text to her boyfriend late Monday night that she had been stopped by police while driving along desolate stretch of road in Hempfield and then wasn’t seen or heard from for the next 20 hours.
But state police spokesman Trooper Steve Limani said Stein was never in danger. He said she never notified authorities or family members searching for her Tuesday that she was safe at the home of an acquaintance in Jeannette at about 8 p.m.
Limani said the needless search cost “tens of thousands of dollars” in manpower and equipment.
“There was never any police stop. There was never any pullover. None of that happened,” Limani said late Tuesday night, before Stein was taken to the Westmoreland County jail in Hempfield. “She recklessly endangered the lives of others,” and scared her family and friends, he said.
Stein was charged by state police at Greensburg with misdemeanor charges of making false reports, false alarm to agencies of public safety, obstruction of the administration of law and disorderly conduct. She was awaiting arraignment on the charges, which police said might occur late Tuesday night or early Wednesday morning.
In reconstructing the incident, police said Stein was last seen leaving the Sonic restaurant off Route 30 in Hempfield, where she worked, at about 10:30 p.m. Monday. She claimed she had dropped a friend off and stopped back at the restaurant after realizing she still had a key to the building, Limani said.
About 10 minutes later, Stein sent a message to her boyfriend that indicated she believed she was being pulled over. Limani said it appeared Stein was headed home on North Greengate and Radebaugh roads.
Her boyfriend and companions found Stein’s car abandoned along Radebaugh Road underneath the bridge carrying Toll Route 66, about a mile from the Sonic restaurant. Her cell phone was found inside her Volkswagen Beetle.
State police said Stein ditched her car and walked at least three miles back to Jeannette.
A passerby told authorities Tuesday afternoon they spotted Stein’s car parked with no one around it at 11:10 p.m. Monday. Limani said Stein’s family reported her missing Tuesday afternoon when they could not locate her.
Police spent much of Tuesday afternoon processing Stein’s car and looking for her near where was found abandoned. They also deployed a helicopter in the search and conducted data searches in an attempt to locate her, Limani said.
“We were going to uncover every stone to find her safe,” Limani said.
The cost of the search, with manpower and flying the helicopter, could easily amount to “tens of thousands of dollars,” Limani said.
Limani said Stein had told her family that she was attending a Penn State campus, possibly the Greater Allegheny campus in McKeesport. But school officials told investigators that she had not been a student there for possibly a year.
They eventually received information that she was at a home in Jeannette, Limani said.
While Stein was believed to have been missing, a group of friends and family waited outside the Carpet Palace store along North Greengate Road for word about her. Her mother, Suzanne Logesky, was taken by police about 8 p.m. on Radebaugh Road toward Jeannette.
Friends and family also gathered at the state police station, waiting while Stein underwent questioning. When led out of the police station to the waiting police cruiser, she would not answer any questions.
Limani said she may have decided to stage her disappearance because of the stress of not graduating from college when she pretended to be going to school.
