The Food Chain of Fake Crime Kidnapping Panic Stories

The story is cooked up initially by a mix of people who are just a little out of their minds or by actual bad actors wanting to spread conspiracy theories and paranoia on Facebook or TikTok. Oftentimes it's people who like are spreading stuff they know is not true because they know it will get them followers. And then the laziest actors in our media ecosystem, the people putting together these shitty little SEO grabbing articles for like local news sites and shit, take this viral story, churn out a quick article with no fact checking. That helps the story spread even further; now look, that's a news station that's covering this thing. There must be an epidemic. I found one example