Woman at center of abduction panic fails to show for lie-detector test

By ANDREW McGINN
a.mcginn@beeherald.com

The Grand Junction woman who was scheduled Monday morning to undergo a polygraph test to verify her claim that a man tried abducting her daughter was a no-show at the Greene County Law Enforcement Center.

“She didn’t show,” Greene County Sheriff Steve Haupert said.

Haupert said he wasn’t surprised by the turn of events.

Tauwana Laue, 36, will be charged with a single count of  false reports or communications with public safety entities — a serious misdemeanor — Haupert said.

Once she’s found, Laue will be booked and released at the Greene County Jail, he said.

Laue had agreed to undertake a polygraph test at 10 a.m. Monday, according to Haupert.

Laue’s claim a week ago that a man in a white van attempted to abduct her 3-year-old girl set off a frenzy of panic throughout the area.

Laue reported the alleged abduction attempt shortly before 11:40 a.m. last Monday, which prompted schools in the Greene County Community School District to lock their doors.

She said it happened just north of Greene County Intermediate School in Grand Junction as she walked a dog and the girl rode a bike.

She told deputies that the dog, a pit bull, thwarted the man’s attempt.

Haupert said last week that surveillance video from the school’s playground should have recorded the vehicle in the area, but that the van did not appear on the recording.

Laue connected her claim with two earlier abduction attempts in Webster County.