Just after she was found guilty of murdering her 15-month-old daughter, Evelyn, Megan Boswell was sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole.
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According to USA Today, the Tennessee mother received the sentence after the jury found her guilty of first-degree murder. She was found guilty of other charges, including child abuse, neglect, tampering with evidence, and abuse of a corpse. She had initially faced 12 counts of false report. However, the state dismissed one of those counts at the start of the trial.
While on trial, Megan Boswell, who is from Blountville, Tennessee, was accused of killing Evelyn, putting her in a trash can, and hiding her body in a playhouse on her father’s property in 2020.
An Amber Alert was issued for Evelyn. Boswell did multiple interviews about the child’s disappearance despite law enforcement accusing her of changing her story about Evelyn’s whereabouts.
The toddler was eventually discovered in a trash bag with aluminum foil tightly wrapped around her face. Boswell was indicted in August 2020 on 19 charges. She was 17 years old at the time.
“She told story after story for two-and-a-half months,” Sullivan County Assistant District Attorney Amber Massengill claimed during the trial’s closing remarks on Feb. 12. “And maybe the worst part is that she just went on with her life as if Evelyn had never even existed. Evelyn did exist. Evelyn was a real person, and Megan Boswell should not be able to go on as if Evelyn did not exist.”
Medical examiners also revealed while on the stand that Evelyn likely died of suffocation. Massengill further stated that evidence proved Boswell was the only person who was responsible for Evelyn’s death.
Megan Boswell’s Attorneys Admitted She Lied, But She Wasn’t Proved to be a Murderer
Meanwhile, Boswell’s defense attorney, Gene G. Scott Jr., argued that Evelyn could have died of natural causes. The toddler was also never abused by her mother.
While on the stand, witnesses described Boswell as a good mother.
“Have they proved that she’s a liar over and over? They have. We don’t deny that,” Scott admitted. “They haven’t proved she’s a murderer.”
Boswell’s palm prints and fingerprints were discovered on the trash can where Evelyn’s body was found. They were also on the aluminum foil wrapped around the toddler’s body.
Scott responded to the evidence by stating that didn’t show she was responsible. He also noted that prints may have been there before Evelyn’s death.
“Whose fingerprints were on that trash bag? Megan Boswell’s fingerprints,” Massengill said. “And you heard (forensic expert Dr. Darinka Mileusnic) say, you can see for yourself, that trash bag is not just gently placed inside the trash can, it has been forcefully… push down compressed and that’s how Megan Boswell’s fingerprints were placed on that trash bag.”
Massengill then added, “More damning than that, Megan Boswell’s fingerprints were found on the tinfoil wrapped around Evelyn’s head.”
Boswell, who did not testify during the trial, will be eligible for parole in 51 years on the murder charge. A Sullivan County judge will sentence her on the other charges at a future date.