NASHVILLE, Tennessee – Authorities Find Leftovers They Believe belong to Evelyn Boswell, a 15-month-old girl from Tennessee who disappeared in the midst of conflict, changing the stories of family members.
Officers from the Tennessee Investigations Office and detectives from the Sullivan County Sheriff’s Office said they discovered remains Friday on property owned by the toddler’s mother’s relative Megan Boswell in Blountville, about 120 miles to the northeast of Knoxville.
The remains will be sent for an autopsy and official identification, confirmed the TBI.
“I would like to thank the community for their outpouring of love, support and prayers over the past 17 days,” said Sullivan County Sheriff Jeff Cassidy during a brief press conference Friday evening.
Authorities did not provide further details on the discovery on Friday, nor did they publicly name a suspect in the child’s apparent death. Sullivan District Attorney General Barry Staubus said “there is a lot of work to do medico-legally” and that they are in the early stages of the investigation.
Evelyn disappeared in December, officials said, but her family did not report her disappearance until February 18, when Evelyn’s grandfather told the Tennessee Children’s Services Department that some members of her family had not seen her for two months.
The matter was referred to the Sullivan County Sheriff’s Office, which launched an investigation with the help of the TBI and the FBI. An amber alert was issued for the missing child on February 19, drawing hundreds of tips into a probe that ultimately reached three states.
Evelyn Boswell:Tennessee missing toddler born into family torn apart by chaos and violence
Evelyn’s mother Megan “Maggie” Boswell, 18, was charged with lying to the police at the outset of the investigation.
“Every time we talk to her, her story changes,” Cassidy said at a press conference last month. “I’m serious when I say that. Every time.”
The mother, who is Evelyn’s sole legal guardian, first said that the child was with her father, Ethan Perry, before insisting that Evelyn’s maternal grandmother, Angela Boswell, took her to a campsite in Mendota, Virginia.
Investigators determined that Perry was stationed in Louisiana on active service in the military and that he did not have Evelyn. Authorities also found no evidence that the child had been taken across state borders.
Megan Boswell was arrested for making a false report. She remained imprisoned during the last inspection of a $ 25,000 bail.
Two days after the TBI issued an Amber Alert for the missing child, Angela Boswell and her boyfriend, William McCloud, were arrested in North Carolina, accused of fleeing the city in a stolen car shortly after that her ex-husband reported the toddler’s disappearance.
Angela Boswell and McCloud have been extradited to Tennessee, where they each face a charge of theft in connection with the stolen car, a 2007 BMW. Since then, they have been released from prison.
According to the theft warrant, Megan Boswell planned to buy the BMW from a relative of her boyfriend, Preston Hunter Wood, for her mother, but never signed a purchase contract or paid for the car.
McCloud’s grandmother, Mary McCloud, later told authorities that McCloud came to her North Carolina home in the BMW and asked for money. She said it was wet and claimed that a pipe had broken out in a hotel room in which he and Angela Boswell had stayed. Angela Boswell, she said, stayed in the car during her grandson’s brief visit.
This meeting led the authorities to search a pond near the home of Mary McCloud. However, the search found nothing and the couple was returned to Sullivan County.
The investigation remains active for the time being.