Miami police say missing baby story was a hoax
Woman admits boy and nanny do not exist
The distraught woman called the Miami police on Christmas Eve with horrible news: Her baby boy was missing.
Meagan McCormic, who told police and the news media that she had moved there from Massachusetts, said her son, Riley, had disappeared with his French-speaking nanny, Camille. She offered a tearful description of his brown hair, green eyes, single baby tooth, and even a temporary anchor tattoo on his arm. She produced a photograph of him in a tiny necktie, his hair twirled into a faux mohawk. A frantic search ensued.
Then, yesterday morning, the 22-year-old woman's story fell apart. McCormic allegedly confessed to Miami police that Riley didn't exist and neither did the nanny. She had never been a mother; she told police she had a miscarriage in March.
Police said the abduction report was an elaborate hoax by McCormic to lure her former boyfriend, John Buchness, from Massachusetts to Miami to reconcile with her. She was arrested and charged with lying to authorities.
"She went out in front of the media. She did a plea to the community to assist her and the police," said Officer Kenia Alfonso of the Miami Police Department, who called the report "an unfortunate waste of resources." "She was quite creative. She cried. She did everything."
The abduction story capped a strange odyssey for a troubled woman.
Yesterday, her former father-in-law, Don Anglin, said McCormic was a church-going woman who left a tiny town in Georgia to move up north and start a new life. According to Miami police, McCormic said she moved to Miami a few months ago from Boston, but that could not be independently verified.
Buchness's background is unknown as well. He told police that he was from Massachusetts and was in town to meet his infant son for the first time. Police said they considered him a victim of a ruse and he has not been charged.
"She lured him down to see the boy," Alfonso said.
Yesterday McCormic was being held at the Women's Detention Center on $500 bail. Buchness could not be found for comment.
McCormic's former father-in-law said she lived for many years in Dawsonville, Ga., population 619. She married his son, Ben Anglin, when she was a teenager.
But the young couple had a tempestuous relationship, he said, and argued over her frequent use of the Internet and text messages to places as far away as Australia. The couple divorced two years ago, after three and a half years of marriage.
"A lot of people say she tore my baby's heart out. . . but that don't mean I wish her ill or anything," Anglin said. The last he heard of her, he said, she had moved up North.
McCormic's mother, Patti Nygaard, declined to comment yesterday when reached in Dawsonville.
McCormic had lived in Miami a few months, police said. They could not give any details of her life there.
She allegedly told police that her son, Riley Archer Buchness, was born June 3 and was in the care of his nanny, Camille. According to The Miami Herald, McCormic said the nanny had cared for Riley in Boston, then moved to Miami and offered to continue baby-sitting.
According to The Miami Herald, McCormic said the nanny was supposed to return the boy Tuesday, but got stuck in traffic. McCormic said the nanny could return the baby Christmas Eve instead, so they could go to Georgia and visit relatives.
When the nanny failed to show up, McCormic said, she called police.
McCormic and Buchness appeared together on the Miami news - her brow creased with worry, and he, ashen-faced.
She told police and the news media that the nanny was driving a red Acura, possibly with a Massachusetts license plate.
"I don't even know if he's dead or alive," McCormic told the Miami Herald. "I don't know where they are."
She told the media that the woman had a heavy French accent and a gap in her front teeth.
But police were wary of her story. McCormic told them she did not know Camille's last name or her address.
After two days, police said they confronted McCormic with "numerous discrepancies in her statement" - and she confessed.
She had found the photograph of the little boy on the Internet, they said.
Police said they are considering demanding that McCormic reimburse them for the expense of the search, which involved more than 20 police officers and detectives.
Police did not have an estimate of the cost yesterday.
Globe researcher Robert W. Burke contributed to this report. 