An American woman says a video of her admitting to a series of suspicious package deliveries in Saskatoon was not a true confession, and that the script she read from was given to her by someone online.

Samantha Field told CTV Saskatoon on Tuesday that she shot the video for a customer on Fiverr, a website that connects freelancers in creative fields with people looking to buy their services, such as writing, music and video production.

The North Carolina woman says she communicated with a user named “alexemme,” who asked that she read a passage from her new book in a video.

The video, Field says she was told, was to be played at a book launch. Screenshots of the pair’s conversation appear to corroborate the story.

The script took the tone of a confession and detailed how the narrator, played by Field, and an accomplice allegedly delivered a series of suspicious packages in Saskatoon.

“We made those packages together, with the cookies and rockets and tissue paper,” Field says in the video. "She said, ‘People will think the baking soda is anthrax.'"

The video never appeared at a book launch. It was sent to several news organizations in April, along with emails claiming that Alexa Emerson, 32, the woman charged in the suspicious package deliveries, was innocent and that police were pursuing the wrong suspect.

Emerson, who is also known as Amanda Totchek, faces 83 charges in connection with five suspicious package deliveries in Saskatoon in November 2016 and other deliveries in March and April.

She has also been charged in connection with several recent bomb threats.

One day after the video was sent, Emerson – who had been the subject of a Canada-wide arrest warrant in connection with the charges – turned herself in to police.

Field said she was unaware of the connection while filming the video.

“Honestly, the first thing that went through my head is, ‘This isn’t true,’” she told CTV Saskatoon.

Field says she has reached out to Saskatoon police and offered to help with the investigation, but has so far not heard back.

Police spokesperson Kelsie Fraser said officers are working to be in touch with Field.

“We’re aware that a young woman has contacted us regarding this, and we are attempting to follow up with her. Apart from that, we do not have any further update to the investigation,” Fraser said.

Field’s comments come after Crime Stoppers invited web users to help locate the woman in the video, pitching the search as the “greatest Where’s Waldo internet challenge.”

On Tuesday, Crime Stoppers told CTV Saskatoon that the lead investigator in the case is on vacation until August.

Even before Field stepped forward, Const. Ryan Ehalt, who co-ordinates Crime Stoppers in Saskatoon, said “the working theory” was that the woman in the video had been hired to perform a confession, possibly through a site such as Fiverr.

“It’s a hunch,” Ehalt said earlier.

According to court documents, Emerson has also been charged in connection with an incident last fall in which she is accused of appearing in videos bound, assaulted and threatened in order to mislead a police officer.

She has been charged with criminal harassment, public mischief and providing false information in connection with the incident.

Emerson has pleaded not guilty to all charges. None of the allegations against her have been tested in court.

With files from CTV Saskatoon