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Inmate allegedly concocts elaborate bail scheme

By Robert Sorrell

Erica Ken-Harding of Georgia wired $400 to Elizabethton last month to release her son from jail. It wasn’t until later she realized the bail bondsman did not exist and the culprit behind the scheme was actually another Carter County Jail inmate.

Carter County Sheriff Chris Mathes said the incident appears to be an “elaborate scheme,” one that he had never heard of before.

The alleged scam artist, Dakota Edward Holsclaw, 19, of 213 Jenkins Hollow Road, Elizabethton, faces a theft charge after police investigated the incident.