Because McKinney and her accomplice, Keith May, skipped bail and fled to the United States before the case could be tried and were not extradited , they were never tried for these specific crimes.
According to Anderson, he had been abducted by McKinney from the steps of a church meetinghouse, chained to a bed and raped by her. After the case, McKinney was allowed to reside in the US with a falsified passport. McKinney later discussed the case in the documentary film Tabloid ; she filed lawsuits against the film's director, Errol Morris , in and , both of which were dismissed in court.
In , McKinney was homeless and living in her vehicle when she was charged with the hit-and-run manslaughter of a year-old pedestrian; the court found her a mentally incompetent defendant and sent her for psychiatric treatment, confirming in that she would remain in a psychiatric hospital, with reviews of her competence at future dates. His abductor was Keith May, aged 24, who had posed as an investigator into Mormonism , using a fake handgun and chloroform.
Police set up a sting operation by having Anderson set up a 21 September rendezvous with McKinney and May, leading to the two suspects being arrested on 19 September. The pair were charged with kidnap and assault, which they vigorously denied. While being taken to Epsom for a court appearance, McKinney held a notice up at the window of the police vehicle saying, "Kirk left with me willingly! Their trial for kidnap had been due to begin on 2 May. On 18 July , May and McKinney were both arrested in the US by the Federal Bureau of Investigation on charges of making false statements in order to obtain passports.
British newspaper coverage of the case was extensive in the final months of For example, the Daily Mirror researched McKinney's past and reported over several days that she had previously been a nude model. The Daily Mail attempted to devalue the Mirror ' s reports by advertising itself as "the paper without Joyce McKinney.
