`Disappearing Mom` Fined

A mother of four who sparked a three-state search when she disappeared last month was given a $625 fine after she admitted to filing a false police report in upstate New York.

Barbara M. Staudt, 37, of Marlton, N.J., was charged in New York with falsely reporting that she had been abducted by a man and woman and that the man had tried to rape her. She was found by authorities walking along the road in a town near Elmira, N.Y., three days after she disappeared.

She agreed to the fine Tuesday in a plea bargain. The misdemeanor charge could have gotten her a one-year prison sentence.

She caused a frantic search in southern New Jersey after she told her family she was going to a Taco Bell on July 12, but did not return home. Her minivan was found near the Taco Bell.

It turned out the mother of four had gone willingly to a home in Pennsylvania's Pocono Mountains with a man she knew from a bowling league.

Though she was the subject of a widespread search in New Jersey, she was not charged with any crimes there.

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