A Tennessee mother broke down in court as she was found guilty of murdering her 15-month-old daughter by suffocating the child and then dumping her body in a trash can.
Megan Boswell, 23, was found guilty on 19 charges related to the killing of daughter Evelyn Mae Boswell, whose body was found in March 2020 three months after the child disappeared, according to Court TV.
As the verdicts were read Thursday, Boswell openly wept and patted her eyes with tissues in front of the court.
She was found guilty on all charges, including child abuse and neglect, felony murder, and abuse of a corpse.
Boswell’s daughter disappeared in December 2019 and was reported missing in February 2020. The toddler’s remains were found inside a trash can the following month.
The mother initially told investigators that her daughter was with her father, who was stationed at a Louisiana Army base.
She later changed her story, saying her mother had taken Evelyn to go to a campground in Virginia, but there was no evidence the girl was ever there, according to Court TV.
A friend of Boswell, Katelyn Carter, who saw the pair together at a Chili’s in early December 2019, testified that there were many warning signs before the murder.
Megan Boswell, 23, was found guilty of murdering her daughter Evelyn Mae Boswell, 15 months, whose body was found in March 2020 three months after she disappeared
As the verdicts were read Thursday, Boswell openly wept and patted her eyes with tissues in front of the court
Boswell was found guilty on all charges, including child abuse and neglect, felony murder, and abuse of a corpse
‘She was dirty and I could smell her across the table,’ Carter said of the toddler earlier this week, claiming her face, hands and clothes were all soiled.
A few weeks later, Carter said Boswell, who was just 18 at the time, started dating Hunter Wood – spending more time with him than with her own daughter.
When Carter eventually asked where Evelyn was, she said Boswell told her she was with her father, whom she claimed was Ethan Perry.
Boswell allegedly said Perry had returned home from an Army base in Louisiana and received emergency custody of the young girl after he saw a photo of her with a bruise.
But he did not actually have custody of the child.
At that point, prosecutors say Boswell changed her story to claim her mother took her daughter to a campground.
Finally, on February 18, 2020, Boswell reported her child missing.
The following month, her father suggested Tennessee Bureau of Investigation agents search a playhouse on his property in Blountville, Tennessee, where authorities found Evelyn’s remains inside a trash can.
Evelyn disappeared in December 2019 and was reported missing in February 2020. The toddler’s remains were found inside a trash can the following month
Agent Brian Fraley, who found Evelyn’s body, explained in court that he searched the playhouse and found a trash can with two trash bags lying next to it, WJHL reported.
He said the trash looked like they had recently been placed there, as the jurors were shown gruesome images of the site.
The last photo, he said, showed the leg of a baby inside a trash can, wearing what he said matched the description Boswell gave of Evelyn’s body.
Several photos also reportedly showed Evelyn in a state of partial decay among the trash.
Other clothing, diapers and toys that would have belonged to the child were also found on the property.
Boswell pleaded not guilty to the toddler’s murder, instead suggesting Evelyn died while she was co-sleeping with her.
Her defense attorney, Gene Scott, asked jurors in his opening statement to consider all of the possibilities of what may have happened to Evelyn – including that her death may have been an accident.
He also implored the jury to put themselves in Boswell’s shoes – as an 18-year-old mother who had just lost a child and may have feared being charged with wrongdoing if she reported an accidental death.
The attorney admitted Boswell ‘absolutely lied to the police’ but did not kill her child.
‘She doesn’t want to get in trouble, it doesn’t mean she murdered her child,’ the attorney said in his opening remarks last week.
He went on to question why only Boswell had been the focus of the state’s investigation and why people like Wood, who had schizophrenia, was not also implicated.
Scott also said it ‘seems strange’ that Boswell’s father ‘had an epiphany’ as to where to search for Evelyn on his property, after it had already been thoroughly searched before.
Still, Scott called the gruesome disposal of Evelyn’s body ‘inexcusable’.
‘It doesn’t excuse anything. It doesn’t make it right, but it doesn’t mean she’s a murderer,’ he argued.
‘There’s nothing you all are gonna do that’s gonna change anything for Evelyn. Not a thing. That child is gone,’ Scott concluded.
‘Your job here today and in the coming days and weeks will be to decide if Megan’s actions are criminal or whether they’re not criminal.’
Prosecutor Amber Massengill argued that the state proved that Boswell killed her daughter by suffocating her, then placed her body in a trash can.
The jury has recommended a sentence of life in prison, with parole eligibility after 51 years, CourtTV reported. The sentencing is scheduled for May 22.
