Mother concerned about LGBTQ+ ‘grooming’ allegedly staged disabled daughter’s kidnapping
Tammi Hamby has previously called for LGBTQ+ books to be banned. (Crawford County Sheriff’s Office)
Tammi Hamby has previously called for LGBTQ+ books to be banned. (Crawford County Sheriff's Office)
A mother was arrested last week for allegedly plotting to kidnap her own daughter, who has a developmental disability, as a ‘scare tactic’ to teach her about online safety. She and three others were charged with conspiracy to commit kidnapping.
Tammi Hamby, 59, is a former chair of the Crawford County library board in Arkansas who demanded the libraries banned LGBTQ+ books to protect children from “grooming”.
She allegedly staged the kidnapping on 17 November to stop her 22-year-old daughter Jami from talking to strangers online.
Hamby is charged with conspiring to kidnapping, first-degree false imprisonment, abuse of an endangered or impaired person, third-degree battery and second-degree terroristic threatening, according to court records.
Hamby’s husband, Jeffery, told 5News on 4 December that they had become concerned about Jami’s safety after she began talking to someone online that claimed to be country singer Luke Bryan and “developed a relationship” with him.
Hamby recruited David Quach, Nico Austria and Jami’s in-home nursing assistant, Shannon Yazmin Yvonne Childers, to help her stage the kidnapping. Posing as people who worked for Bryan, Quach and Austria lurked Jami from her home and drove her to a field, where they zip-tied her to a tree while her mother watched from a distance.
Hamby alleges that she intended to “rescue” Jami, but Jami eventually got free on her own and dialled 911. The police officer who responded to the call said that Jami “was in fear for her life and clung tightly to a teddy bear” while he interviewed her.
