Missing Missouri mom faked disappearance to smoke pot with ex-husband, sheriff says

(CBS/AP) KANSAS CITY, Mo. - A missing Missouri woman who was found Monday with her 4-year-old daughter staged their disappearance - just so she could smoke synthetic marijuana with her ex-husband in a suburban Kansas City motel, with the child nearby, a sheriff said.

Authorities feared that 28-year-old Rachel Koechner was abducted by her former husband when she sent a text message Thursday to her boyfriend saying, "help me."

Chariton County Sheriff Chris Hughes said Koechner instead spent much of that time with her ex, 37-year-old Davon Sandner, and their child, Zoee Sandner, at a Blue Springs motel.

They were found Monday night at a Linn County home. Hughes didn't specify whose home.

Koechner is held without bond in Chariton County but has not been charged. Sandner is jailed on unrelated forgery charges.