Authorities in Sullivan County, Tennessee said Wednesday that law enforcement in Wilkes County, North Carolina was conducting a search of a lake in that county in connection with Evelyn Boswell’s case.
Also Wednesday, the mother of a 15-month-old Tennessee girl who is the subject of an Amber Alert was arrested for filing a false police report.
Megan Boswell, who has said the toddler’s grandmother took her daughter Evelyn Boswell to Mendota, Virginia, is being held at the Sullivan County jail on a false report charge, according to the Sullivan County Sheriff’s Office. Her bond was set at $25,000.
A reward for the missing girl is now up to $59,850.
On Wednesday, court documents obtained by WKRN showed that the grandfather contacted the Department of Children’s Services last week saying he had not seen his granddaughter for some time.
On February 18, investigators spoke with Megan Boswell who claimed that little Evelyn was with her father, Ethan Perry. She claimed that they were supposed to exchange custody on February 19 in Colonial Heights.
Investigators quickly learned that Perry, who is in the Army, was stationed in Fort Polk, Louisiana at the time and did not have the child.
An Amber Alert was issued the next day.
On Monday, Megan Boswell did an interview with WREG’s sister station WJHL, during which she claimed that her mother took the child.
She also claimed to know where her daughter is, but admitted to only telling authorities part of what she says she knows.
“I told TBI where to find her in Mendota. My mom took her to a campground in a silver camper and if they don’t go tonight, I’m going to go find her myself, because I’ve told them and they’re not really like taking it seriously and if they don’t go tonight, I will go myself and go get her…They’re not taking me seriously, TBI isn’t, because I’ve not fully told them I’ve been like ‘hey, like my mom camped out in Mendota, you know, to go check them out,’ but I’ve never been like, ‘hey,’ specifically, ‘hey, she’s like in a silver camper,’ because my mom did threaten me like you know if I told anybody – I’m not gonna get into that – but she did,” Boswell said.
In a recent interview, Sullivan County Sheriff Jeff Cassidy told reporters that Megan Boswell has given them several inaccurate statements since they began investigating this case.
Sullivan County authorities said they have already searched that area in Mendota and nothing was located.
When asked about those conflicting statements, MeganBoswell said she was trying to help her mom.
“I was trying to protect my mom, maybe in hopes, ‘Oh well, she just tell them were Evelyn was,’ but obviously she’s not going to.”
Several hours after the interview, Megan Boswell reportedly sent a private Facebook message to the same station claiming that she went in for a polygraph test and authorities turned her away because she is pregnant.
The Sullivan County Sheriff’s Office said they “do not use polygraph.”
On Tuesday, Bristol Herald Courier reported that Megan Boswell was charged with one count of filing a false police report, according to the Sullivan County Sheriff’s Office. She is being held on $1,000 bail.
The child’s grandmother, Angela Boswell, and her boyfriend, William McCloud, were arrested last week in North Carolina on fugitive warrants unrelated to the toddler’s disappearance, Wilkes County Sheriff’s Lt. Logan Kerr said.
They agreed on Monday to be extradited back to Tennessee. Boswell told the judge she wanted to return home and resolve the situation with her granddaughter, news outlets reported.
The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation said in a news release that McCloud and Boswell are “believed to have information” regarding the whereabouts of the girl.
The TBI said Evelyn’s mother and grandmother have given conflicting dates and accounts about the girl’s disappearance.
