Staff report

GAINESVILLE, Fla. – Rachael Jaime Austin, 33, who was on pre-trial release following a March arrest for filing a false report of sexual battery, has now been charged with four counts of spoofing an ex-boyfriend’s phone number and one count of using another woman’s name without her consent.

The spoofed calls reportedly began on January 17, 2024, when law enforcement received a call from a woman who said she could hear a man and woman arguing “in the apartment next door” and gave the address of a man who was later found to be Austin’s ex-boyfriend. The caller said the man was threatening to beat the woman, and the caller gave the ex-boyfriend’s name and description, including the clothes he was wearing, to the call-taker. The caller also said the man had guns in the apartment.

When Alachua County Sheriff’s Office deputies arrived at the apartment, they found Austin’s ex-boyfriend alone and asleep.

About five hours later, another call was received from the same phone number. The female caller said she woke up in the ex-boyfriend’s apartment and was unable to leave. Deputies again responded and reportedly found the ex-boyfriend alone and asleep.

About 20 minutes later, the Santa Fe College Police Department received a call about a sexual battery from the same phone number. The caller used a false name and said Austin’s ex-boyfriend had sexually battered her; she also provided the ex-boyfriend’s Santa Fe ID number. The caller gave a different number for police to call her back on, and when an officer called that number, the person who answered reportedly gave her name as Rachael Austin and said she did not know what the police were calling about.

Officers then called the number that was used for the calls to law enforcement, and a man in Tampa answered; he reportedly told officers that he had also previously dated Austin, and officers learned that his girlfriend’s name was fraudulently used in the call to Santa Fe Police Department. That ex-boyfriend told officers that he had previously been a victim of stalking/harassment incidents involving Austin.

On January 19, 2024, Austin was arrested and charged with stalking for the fraudulent police reports as well as previous incidents that appeared to be instigated by Austin; those charges have now been dropped.

A search warrant was obtained, and deputies served it on February 23, resulting in three cell phones belonging to Austin. Investigation of the phones reportedly showed that Austin had performed internet searches for how to spoof phone calls and how to send calls and texts from virtual numbers. She reportedly looked at several companies that offer this type of service, and there were searches for AI voices and AI voices with accents.

Investigators reportedly found a message from a Google voice account to Austin’s phone number that said, “I thought it was funny to drug you with Ambien then make you say sh** like you were being held hostage by [the ex-boyfriend].”

Investigators reportedly found a number of voice memos, some of which appeared to be Austin practicing the calls that were made to police in January. In one memo in Austin’s voice, she reportedly gives the ex-boyfriend’s apartment complex and says she lives next door and begins a sentence and then makes a mistake and ends the recording. Another recording in her voice reportedly states that she is the ex-boyfriend’s neighbor and that he is threatening to kill someone.

One recording in her voice reportedly starts off, “Hey Rach”; in that recording, she appears to be pretending to be someone else. The recording goes on, “Remember the night that [the Tampa ex-boyfriend] allegedly raped you? I did that. I spoofed his number and sent those text messages.”

In another recording, she reportedly uses a different woman’s name and says she is being held captive at the Gainesville ex-boyfriend’s address.

In addition to the previously-filed charges of making a false report and tampering with evidence, prosecutors filed five felony charges on June 17: four counts of spoofing the Tampa ex-boyfriend’s phone number and one count of fraudulently using his girlfriend’s name. A warrant for Austin’s arrest was issued by Judge William Davis the same day, with bail set at $25,000.