TIVERTON — A man who police thought was intent on committing suicide is not at the bottom of a frigid Mount Hope Bay as Tiverton, Fall River and Coast Guard rescuers first feared — he is sitting in a Massachusetts jail cell.

The suicide report, which led to an all-out search and rescue effort on a cold and stormy March 2, was a hoax, Tiverton investigators now say. And the man who called it in, Jeffrey Heaberlin, 32, of Fall River (and sometimes of Tiverton), is wanted on a Tiverton warrant for charges of filing false information with a 911 call and obstruction of justice.

Tiverton must wait in line. Mr. Haeberlin is also in trouble with Fall River police for an alleged domestic incident that happened just before his faked suicide.

Portsmouth Police Captain Pat Jones said that at 3 a.m. on Thursday, March 2. Mr. Haeberlin called 911 and told Tiverton Police that he was going to jump in the water and kill himself.

The cell phone that he used to make the call was “pinged” to a waterfront location near the Bay Street fuel docks in northeast Tiverton near the Fall River line.

Rescuers arrived to find that phone, along with a leather jacket, near a large jetty. Tiverton firefighters sent a crew out in their small boat while firefighters from Tiverton and Fall River combed the shoreline. The Coast Guard tried to send a helicopter but fierce winds gusting over 40 mph from the west prevented that. Instead a patrol boat rushed up from Station Castle Hill in Newport and searched for hours.

Conditions became so dangerous that the Tiverton boat had to be called back — it sought shelter in the lee of Common Fence Point as boat and crew took a beating from waves and spray.

Later that morning, Capt. Jones said, a man identifying himself as Mr. Haeberlin’s father called Tiverton Police and asked Sgt. Brendan McKinnon if there was any update. The sergeant said that his son had not been found.

But the next day (Friday), a man came into the Tiverton station and identified himself as Mr. Haeberlin’s father. Sgt. Dan Raymond offered his condolences and said that Jeffrey had not been found and that there was little new to report since the previous day’s discussion.

“‘I never spoke to (Tiverton Police),’”Capt. Jones said the man replied. He told the sergeant that, upon learning of his son’s disappearance, he had driven up from Virginia and had not yet spoken to police. What’s more, he said he had had a coffee and donut with his son at a Fall River Dunkin’ Donuts in the hours after the search was called off.

He also told police that his son is homeless — searchers had found a makeshift shelter in the woods near where the phone and jacket were found. And his son owns a second cell phone, one supplied through a government assistance program.

Capt. Jones said that police believe it was that phone that Mr. Haeberlin used to call police and pretend to be his father.

When they attempted to serve their summons on Mr. Haeberlin, Tiverton officers were told by Fall River Police that they had already arrested him on a domestic charge for an incident that allegedly happened shortly before the phony suicide.

When Mr. Haeberlin eventually answers to the Tiverton charges regarding the “suicide attempt,” another issue will be the “considerable cost” of the search that Capt. Jones said could easily run into the “thousands or tens of thousands” of dollars.

“If a person said he wanted to commit suicide and then didn’t, that’s not a crime,” Cat. Jones said. Police and rescuers will see to it that the person gets help. But efforts to make it look like suicide, including a call “pretending to be his dad,” make this case a hoax.