updated
Saturday, 2:15 PM
From the Metro staff at The Boston Globe

Former Boston woman charged in Fla. abduction hoax

December 26, 2008 02:02 PM Email| Comments (11)| Text size +

mccormick.jpg

Meagan McCormic's booking photo.

By Maria Sacchetti, Globe Staff

A 22-year-old former Boston woman was arrested in Miami today for falsely claiming that a French nanny kidnapped her 6-month-old baby boy in Florida, police said.

Miami Police said the boy she called "Riley" – and the nanny named "Camile" – never existed. Instead, 22-year-old Meagan McCormic allegedly used a photograph of a brown-haired infant to lure her boyfriend, John Buchness, from Boston to Miami to visit the boy. She allegedly told Buchness that Riley was his son.

"It’s an unfortunate waste of resources," said police spokeswoman, Officer Kenia Alfonso. "What this woman did to try to lure her boyfriend to think that he had actually a child. ..She was quite creative. She cried. She did everything."

McCormic is charged with providing false information to authorities and is being held pending a bond hearing. Her urgent and tearful pleas for Riley's return triggered a massive two-day search and missing children's alerts starting Christmas Eve until today, when she allegedly confessed at the police department after being confronted with inconsistencies in her story.

She had told police that Riley, a 6-month-old with green eyes, had been allegedly taken by the nanny in a red Acura with a Massachusetts license plate. In her confession, police said, she said she had a miscarriage in March 2008 and never had a baby.

Police said John Buchness was duped by McCormic and is not facing charges.

Police are considering demanding that the woman repay the police department for the massive cost of the search, which included searching fields, detective work, and work on a holiday. At least 20 officers participated in the search.

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11 comments so far...
  1. No nanny. No baby. No boyfriend. A loser, yes.

    Posted by reindeergirl December 26, 08 09:16 PM
  1. Of course she should repay he cost of the police search. And then she should have to go on television (again) and explain how it feels to be such a public liar.

    Posted by Tori December 26, 08 09:20 PM
  1. Before this was revealed to be a fabrication, news reports of her describing him as about one foot tall seemed to be a tip-off that something wasn't right.

    Posted by jenny December 26, 08 11:23 PM
  1. Is there any question why Mr. Buchness left her?

    Posted by cmc December 26, 08 11:32 PM
  1. She looks like she is 40 years old, and she must pay back every single penny for laying. Man what a loser for making up stories to keep her boyfriend

    Posted by Duke December 26, 08 11:49 PM
  1. She is an adult she also committed fraud and that in my book is a crime. She needs to pay not only the costs of the police and all the other individuals whom participated in the search but also the expenses on the victim the John Buchness for expenses for traveling from place he lived to where the mother was and all the expenses he occurrred while there also for mental distress. She needs to spend time in jail for fraud, filing a false police report and for mental cruelty hm does it constitute abuse, I think so. She also needs a full psych eval as well.

    Posted by Christina December 27, 08 06:25 PM
  1. Wouldn't it be great if news media actually verified facts before chasing stories like this? The 24-hour news cycle encourages this sort of misinformation for the sake of sensational info-tainment. Shame on the Globe and all local TV networks.

    Posted by David December 27, 08 11:37 PM
  1. Desperation causes some people to literally go bonkers; they are focused ONLY on what THEY want and nothing else and notbody else matters. These people are extremely self-centered and out of control.....remember Scott Peterson? the guy who recently killed his former wife and eight other members (so far) of her family?? It is too bad these people are not found out until they have committed the crime!! Narcissim (sp) is a terrible thing!!

    Posted by NinaK December 28, 08 01:48 AM
  1. I think this kind of crap happens....period. The day and age we live in is so full of evil it's no wonder people come up with these types of things. Nothings real anymore we live in a world of television and computers completely desensitized to the consequenses of our actions.

    Posted by helium December 28, 08 08:03 AM
  1. The sad part of all of this is when there is a real child abduction people have a hard time believing the parents after Susan Smith and the Caylee story, now this.

    Posted by Deb December 29, 08 09:28 AM
  1. Holy smokes!! I know these people i cant belive this i worked with john and traveled from new york to miami when our job relocated us and we shared a u-haul. This woman was crazy i always knew something was not right with her. I just really feel bad for John he is actually a nice guy. He always talked about his son and how he couldn't wait to meet him... Too bad his son never existed.

    Posted by Mike January 28, 09 08:27 PM
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