Florida mom kidnaps daughter to prevent vaccination; caught 14 months later after TV show airs
08/04/2015 3:32 pm PDT
A Florida woman who kidnapped her toddler daughter in 2014 to keep her from being vaccinated was caught in Florida Monday after her new landlady watched a true-crime TV episode featuring the fugitive mother.
Megan Elizabeth Everett was held without bond Tuesday on warrants for kidnapping, interfering with child custody and concealing a minor. A judge informed Everett Monday that she would be transported to Broward County in South Florida to face the charges.
Everett allegedly kidnapped the child, who was 2 at the time, in Sunrise in South Florida in May 2014. She allegedly took the child to prevent the girl from being vaccinated.
- Everett was caught Monday in Palatka in northern Florida.
The child's father, Robert Baumann, dropped off their daughter at Everett's Sunrise residence on May 6, 2014. The girl was scheduled to be returned to Baumann a week later -- when she was not, Baumann waited a few days, then reported his daughter missing on May 15, 2014.
Everett avoided detection for a little more than a year. She had moved into a rental property last week; the property owner recognized Everett when the CNN program "The Hunt" featured her story Sunday night. The landlady recognized her new tenant and contacted CNN the next day, and CNN informed the FBI.
- Later Monday, Putnam County sheriff's deputies surrounded the house, saw Everett and the child inside, and took them into custody. The 3-year-old was unharmed.
Robert Baumann now has full custody of the child.
Everett left a note for the boyfriend she was living with in Sunrise at the time she disappeared:
"Dear C, if I let them take her and vaccinate her and brainwash her, I wouldn't be doing what's right," she wrote. "I cannot let a judge tell me how my daughter should be raised. We will miss you, but I had to leave. I know she will be safer and happier with my family and I. Love, Meg and Lilly."
SOURCES: WJXT-TV, Sun Sentinel