N.C. man faked his own death to flee rape charge — but forgot about his ankle monitor: cops

A North Carolina man charged with rape came up with what he thought was the perfect plan, reported The Daily Beast: fake his own death, then disappear with the authorities none the wiser.

The only problem? He forgot he was still wearing an ankle monitor.

Melvin Emde, age 41, was due in court in Brunswick County to answer charges of statutory rape of a child on August 7, when his son called deputies in Louisiana and told them his father had been lost overboard in a kayaking accident on the Mississippi River. Police, however, were still tracking his ankle monitor, and could tell he was at a Walmart buying two prepaid phones.

Police decided to pretend to fall for the ruse to catch him off guard, planting local news reports about a desperate search-and-rescue effort to find Emde, and even his own family members were quoted in the press expressing their shock at his death.

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Meanwhile, Emde tried to cross the Georgia state line on a motorcycle with no plate, leading a Georgia state trooper on a chase that ended when he crashed the bike. He gave authorities a false name, but his fingerprints identified him.

When criminal suspects attempt to fake their own death, it often ends badly for them, according to reports.

Last year, a former North Carolina police chief accused of stealing guns, drugs, and cash from the evidence room pretended to be dead by suicide while he was hiding out at his aunt's house to beat the charges. And disgraced former South Carolina attorney Alex Murdaugh, whose murder trial captivated the nation earlier this year, tried to fake his own death shortly after the shooting of his wife and son to arrange a fraudulent $10 million insurance payout to his surviving son.