Search underway at NC pond after missing toddler’s mom arrested, Tennessee cops say
The mom of a missing toddler was arrested as the search for the girl continues, Tennessee officials say.
An Amber Alert is active for Evelyn Mae Boswell, who cops say was reported missing last week.
But the 15-month-old hasn’t been seen since December, according to the Sullivan County Sheriff’s Office.
An area in Wilkes County, North Carolina, is being searched in connection with the toddler’s disappearance, Sheriff Jeff Cassidy with the Tennessee department said Wednesday in a news conference. The search focuses on a pond, WCYB and other news outlets report.
The girl’s mom has been charged with false reporting, the sheriff’s office said. Megan “Maggie” Boswell, 18, is accused of giving “a number of conflicting statements” to police.
“Many of the false statements that Megan made delayed our investigations,” Cassidy said in a news conference that WHJL and other news outlets streamed.
The mother told WJHL she is pregnant, preventing her from taking a lie detector test. But Sullivan County deputies said they “do not use polygraph,” according to the station.
Boswell was arrested Tuesday and taken to the Sullivan County jail, roughly 100 miles northeast of Knoxville and near the Virginia border.
It wasn’t the first arrest in connection with the search for the girl.
Over the weekend, authorities tracked down people they thought had information about Evelyn’s location, The Charlotte Observer reported.
Angela Boswell, the girl’s 42-year-old grandmother, and her boyfriend, William McCloud, were arrested in Wilkes County, North Carolina, according to the Knoxville News Sentinel and other media outlets.
They were accused of being in a stolen car that officials connected to the toddler’s disappearance, the Bristol Herald Courier reported.
The search is still underway for Evelyn, who was “last seen wearing a pink tracksuit, pink shoes, and a pink bow,” according to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. The girl has “blonde hair and blue eyes,” officials say.
Sullivan County deputies started investigating the case last week after getting information from the Department of Children’s Services, The Charlotte Observer reported. The girl may not have been seen since Dec. 11 or 12, cops said Friday.
“We want to know why the child was not reported missing earlier,” Capt. Andy Seabolt of the Sullivan County Sheriff’s Office told WCYB last week.
Amber Alerts are issued “for the most serious of missing children cases, in which law enforcement believes that a child is in imminent danger,” according to the Tennessee State Bureau of Investigation.
Officials encourage anyone who spots Evelyn or has information to contact Sullivan County deputies at 423-279-7330 or state investigators at 800-824-3463.
This story was originally published February 26, 2020 at 9:45 AM.
