Dec 26, 2008 10:57 pm US/Eastern
Woman Charged With Lying About Missing Baby
Meagan McCormic Charged With Filing A False Police Report
Police: She Lied To Cover Up Miscarriage
McCormic Is Being Held In Jail On $500 Bond
MIAMI (CBS4) ―
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Meagan McCormic is charged with filing a false police report after telling police her baby may have been kidnapped. Problem was, there was no baby, she lied about his existance, said police.
CBS
The search for a baby, reportedly missing since December 23rd, was called off Friday after Miami police say the whole story was fabricated by a woman who claimed to be the missing child's mother. It turns out the missing baby was never really gone, because he never really existed.
Meagan McCormic told police that a baby sitter never returned her 6-month old son Riley Buchness, but police said Friday that McCormic was lying and used the fake existence of the baby to lure an ex-boyfriend from Boston to Miami to meet his supposed son. A judge set bond at $500 for McCormic Friday afternoon on a misdemeanor charge of filing a false police report. She remains behind bars at the Miami-Dade County Jail.
Miami Police Det. Freddy Ponce said McCormic made up the story about her missing 6-month old son Riley, to cover up the fact that she had a miscarriage in March. She reportedly didn't want her ex-boyfriend, John Buchness, to know the truth.
Detectives say she went through great lengths to make her story believable, buying baby clothes and sending herself text messages from a second phone, pretending to be the kidnapping nanny.
"Through many hours of investigation and interviews with the mother, the fact is that the baby never existed," said Detective Ponce. "I think the lies have been mounting up on her since day one, since she fabricated this information."
Detective Ponce explained that when Buchness came to town from Boston for the holidays to visit McCormic and his son, she made up the story about the baby disappearing with a nanny. Trouble is, police say, there was no baby and there was no nanny.
"It's the next day and why hasn't she called. We called hospitals. I don't know," McCormic said in a TV interview, all while her weeping boyfriend stood by her side.
"I don't understand, it's Christmas, I want my son," Buchness said.
McCormic allegedly found the picture of a child on the internet and made up the story. She claimed the baby was last seen with a nanny named Camille on December 23rd, but McCormic didn't have a last name for the nanny or an address.
Detectives say McCormic's plan was to stall Buchness until she could adopt a little boy and pass him off as their son.
"It's a great length that she took to fabricate this whole story just to try and save a broken relationship," said Miami Police Department's Willy Moreno.
Police say Buchness had no knowledge of the miscarriage; in fact, McCormic apparently led him to believe the baby had been born healthy. Buchness was in town to meet his son for the first time. On Christmas Day, the estranged boyfriend attended a news conference with McCormic under the impression that he had a son who was missing.
Police are asking McCormic to pay for the resources that were used to locate the supposed child.
"We had a task force of approximately 20 detectives," Moreno said. "A lot of resources went to waste here and these resources could have been used on people who had legitimate cases."
(© MMX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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