John Walsh Program Leads To Discovery Of Abducted Child
A 3-year-old girl is back home with her father, thanks to a John Walsh program that lead to her discovery. Lilly Baumann was abducted by her mother, Megan Everett, from Sunrise, Florida in May of 2014. On Sunday, CNN’s program The Hunt, with John Walsh, featured the case. A landlord in Palatka, Florida was watching and realized that Megan Everett was renting space in an RV park from her. She called the authorities and Everett was arrested without incident.
Lilly’s abduction was only the tip of a very large iceberg. While her parents had never married, her father Robert Baumann wasn’t concerned with Everett’s parenting skills until he discovred pictures of his daughter playing in piles of live ammunition and Everett began touting the same Confederate supremacy views her new boyfriend had. That, along with said boyfriend’s violence-fueled rants (including a challenge on YouTube for enemies to come visit him, complete with the address he and Everett were living at), prompted him to seek full custody of his daughter. Despite the fact both Everett’s mother and sister spoke in favor of Baumann’s appeal, the previous joint custody ruling was kept in place. (Everett’s family members had been concerned with her personality change that came along with her new boyfriend.) The next time he came to pick up Lilly for a week, her boyfriend said they had moved out. Everett had left a note that said while she thought Baumann was a good father, if she kept Lilly in the state she would be vaccinated, placed in daycare, and would “brainwash her.”
When the police came to the RV park Everett was living in, she was taken into custody without incident. At first, the abducted child was wary of the officers, but eventually agreed to go with them. She no longer recognized her real name. Baumann drove to Palatka as soon as he got word of her discovery and was reunited with his daughter. He couldn’t believe the news at first, since there had been so many false leads, but he soon realized this time it was the real thing. He had thought they had left the state and possibly the country, as Everett had fled to Canada.
Everett is being held without bond by the Putnam County Sheriff’s office on charges of kidnapping, interference with child custody, and unlawful flight to avoid prosecution. She is expected to be extradited to Broward County to face the charges. She faces up to five years in prison.
[Left photo via National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, right photo via Putnam County Sheriff’s Office]
