Evelyn Boswell

Case background and investigation

Evelyn Mae Boswell was a 15-month-old girl from Sullivan County in northeast Tennessee. According to the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation (TBI), she was reported missing on February 18, 2020, and an AMBER Alert was issued the following evening. A timeline published by WVLT says the investigation began after Evelyn's grandfather, Tommy Boswell Sr., contacted the Department of Children's Services. The TBI said the child had reportedly last been seen on December 26, 2019, while noting that investigators had been given conflicting dates.

Evelyn's mother, Megan Boswell, gave differing accounts of where her daughter was. NewsChannel 9 reported that court records showed she had claimed Evelyn was with the child's father, who was on active military duty, and that she told reporters she had not gone to police because she feared the person who had Evelyn would disappear. WVLT reported that she also pointed investigators to a campground in Virginia. On February 25, 2020, she was arrested and charged with false reporting.

On March 6, 2020, TBI agents and Sullivan County detectives searched a property on Muddy Creek Road in Blountville that belonged to a member of Megan Boswell's family and found human remains. The TBI later confirmed they were Evelyn's. At a hearing on September 23, 2022, a TBI agent testified that the remains were inside a trash bag in a trash can in a playhouse on the property, WCYB reported. At the same hearing, forensic pathologist Dr. Darinka Mileusnic-Polchan testified that the cause of death was asphyxia.

WVLT reported that Megan Boswell was charged with felony murder on August 19, 2020. Her trial was delayed several times and began in February 2025. After eight days, on February 13, 2025, the jury found her guilty on all 19 counts: first-degree murder, two counts of felony murder, aggravated child abuse, aggravated child neglect, tampering with evidence, 11 counts of false reporting, abuse of a corpse, and failure to report a death under suspicious circumstances, according to WCYB.

The jury set her punishment for the murder convictions at life in prison, which WCYB reported would make her eligible for parole after 51 years. At a sentencing hearing for the remaining counts in early September 2025, Judge Jim Goodwin added 33 years, for a total sentence of life plus 33 years. WCYB reported that a motion for a new trial had been filed and that her attorney planned an appeal; no outcome of that appeal was found in the sources reviewed.

Gray Television stations reported that the case led Tennessee to pass a law in 2021 requiring parents to report a missing child within 24 hours of determining that the child is missing.