EDMONTON — An Alberta woman who Crown prosecutors say was wrongfully released from an Edmonton area jail with allegedly fake release papers has been arrested in B.C.
In a news release, RCMP said Mackenzie Dawn Hardy, 24, was taken into custody this week by officers in Revelstoke, along with a 27-year-old man accused of being an accomplice in her release.
David Joseph Wood has been charged with assisting in the escape of a prisoner, identity fraud and uttering a forged document.
"Both Hardy and Wood have been taken before a justice of the peace and remanded into custody," the RCMP said Thursday.
"They will be transported back to Alberta where they will be brought before the Alberta courts regarding future court dates."
The Alberta Crown Prosecution Service has said Hardy was released from the Fort Saskatchewan Correctional Centre after staff were shown documents that said her charges had been stayed.
They later learned those papers were fake.
She had been in custody on several offences, including possession of stolen property, impaired driving and driving without insurance or registration after being arrested in March.
A woman who identified herself as Hardy had posted videos on the social media platform TikTok, where she taunted law enforcement and denied that the papers were fake. In one video, she said her release was a "gift from God."
RCMP said she now faces a new charge of escaping lawful custody.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 29, 2025.
Aaron Sousa, The Canadian Press
