Police say widely shared video of man held captive, beaten was staged
ST. JOSEPH COUNTY, Mich.--- ABC57 confirmed a viral video that left many worried and confused months ago was all a hoax.
Jeffrey Archer of Elkhart is behind bars after staging a fake torture video, created as an attempt to scare an ex-partner.
The video shows a man tied up with his hands above his head, with blood on his forehead and front, and tank top ripped up. Another man in the video is seen hitting him with a baton.
According to police records from the St. Joseph County Sheriff's Office in Michigan, the ex-partner of the man in the video, Jeffrey Archer, was sent that video, and called the police. This was shortly after 4 a.m. on Dec. 10, 2025.
Just a few hours later, images from the video began circulating on Facebook.
The sheriff's office learned Archer's mother-in-law got the video too, and she got a call from him the night prior, telling her to start planning his funeral before he abruptly hung up.
Archer's family, though dubious, scrambled to find out where he is, and it garnered a lot of social media attention.
Police records show Archer apparently sent the video to his own mother by mistake.
The next day, Dec. 11, she flew from Florida to Michigan, and successfully located her son, unharmed, in Mottville Township, in the basement of the other man in the video.
Police say Archer then admitted to his mom it was all a hoax. It was all an attempt to scare, and illicit a response from, his ex-partner, with whom he had a no contact order.
Archer's mom took him to the sheriff's office, then the hospital for a mental health evaluation.
There, he was officially arrested.
Archer is detained at the St. Joseph County, Michigan, jail.
He was arrested for violating the no contact order and is also charged with aggravated stalking, since he used the video to intimidate and terrify his ex.
His case is in the Michigan 45th Circuit Court.
Meanwhile, he has another pending felony case in the Elkhart Superior Court, involving another domestic dispute with his ex, resulting in that no contact order.