Last week a father in Virginia called the Lee County Sheriff�s Department after he received a FaceTime call showing his son tied up to a tree with a gun to his head in Lee County, Mississippi.�

The father says he received the call about his son, 24-year-old Andrew Blake Hawks, who was allegedly kidnapped. The individual who made the call, demanded money by a specific deadline, in exchange for his son�s life.�

�This is a case where an individual owed another individual a drug debt and this is what it evolved into,� Lee County Sheriff Jim Johnson stated. �The parents received a call from a person they believed to be their son begging for his life and then they heard a gunshot and at that point, they assumed the kidnapper had then killed their son.�

Shortly after the gunshot, the father received another call from the individual threatening to cut Hawks� fingers off until the money demands were met. Hawks parents received pictures of a hand and body parts every ten minutes. The images gradually got worse as no money was sent.�

During the investigation, the authorities and Hawks� parents grew suspicious that the incident might not be an actual kidnapping.

�The parents became suspicious once they looked at the hand that was in the photograph and was able to determine they did not believe that was their son,� Sheriff Johnson stated. �This entire time they were talking with us at the sheriff�s department.”

Later in the evening, the �kidnapper� was told the money was sent via Western Union, and when undercover investigators arrived, the �victim,� Andrew Blake Hawks, was at the counter trying to pick up the money. �

Hawks was immediately taken into custody and charged with extortion and possession of a weapon by a convicted felon.�

Hawks had an accomplice, 36-year-old David Fisher, who was shopping inside the store. Fisher was arrested and charged with extortion.�

This is a developing story.�

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