'Amor' wasn't victim of violent crime, actually fell off scooter, Vancouver police say

The exterior of Princeton Pub in East Vancouver is pictured. A woman was allegedly abducted after leaving the bar on the night of Nov. 4, 2023.

A woman who woke up seriously injured in East Vancouver earlier this month – prompting online rumours about a possible kidnapper and rapist on the loose – had actually fallen off a scooter, a police investigation has determined.

Authorities came to that conclusion after spending weeks reviewing surveillance video, interviewing witnesses and collecting medical information, the Vancouver Police Department said Wednesday.

"This was a case of misadventure – not a violent crime," Sgt. Steve Addison wrote in a statement. "There was never a risk of harm to the public as a result of this incident, and the fear was spread wide by people who unknowingly shared information that was not accurate."

Police stressed that the injured woman – a traveller from Mexico who has only been identified online by the pseudonym "Amor" – was not responsible for the misinformation surrounding her accident.

Authorities believe the injuries she sustained in her fall may have contributed to memory loss.

"Our investigators met with the injured woman before she left the country and found her to be forthcoming with what she recalled about the night she was injured," said Addison.

WHAT ACTUALLY HAPPENED

From all accounts, Amor was out with friends at the Princeton Pub on the night of Nov. 3. At some point in the early morning hours of Nov. 4, she appears to have left on her own.

According to police, what happened next is that the young woman "flagged down a passerby on an electronic scooter and hitched a ride on the front, but quickly fell off and struck her face on the pavement."

She then reached out to a friend and went to hospital for treatment.

After the incident, an Instagram post began circulating allegations that the woman had been "abducted by a man dressed all in black," who then "raped her and beat her so severely" that she was missing most of her teeth.

A number of online commenters speculated that she might have been attacked by Randall Hopley, a sex offender who disappeared from his halfway house the same weekend of the Amor incident – though Hopley didn't actually escape until hours after Amor was injured.

$15,000 RAISED FOR WOMAN

A GoFundMe page, launched by a friend of a friend of Amor's, was also set up to help the traveller with her medical, dental and travel expenses, and quickly collected more than $15,000.

The organizer later posted an update to acknowledge some of the early fears about what happened to Amor turned out to be unfounded, and gave some indication of how the rumours began.

"At some point, someone told someone told someone and broken telephone ended up being broken social media," reads a Nov. 11 update on the GoFundMe page.

Another update posted on Nov. 22 maintained that the traveller appeared to have been a victim of violence, but let donors know they could request a refund through the company.

"Once again, here are the facts: She doesn't remember a damn thing after playing pool at the pub. No one saw anything," it reads.

The GoFundMe page also indicates that Amor – who has not received any of the donated money, pending the results of an ongoing investigation by the company – paid for care at Vancouver General Hospital, was examined for evidence of a sexual assault, and received a blood test to determine if she had been drugged.

In the Vancouver Police Department's update on Wednesday, authorities encouraged anyone who believes they may have been the victim of a sexual assault to come forward, promising that their allegations – like Amor's – will be taken seriously.

"While this investigation has concluded that a sexual assault did not occur, we want everyone to know that every allegation brought forward will be thoroughly investigated and that victims of crime will be fully supported through the investigative process," Addison said.