Mom pleads not guilty to killing daughter who was suffocated by foil, placed upside-down in trash

BLOUNTVILLE, Tenn. (TCN) -- A mother already facing multiple murder charges relating to the disappearance and death of her toddler daughter pleaded not guilty to premeditated first-degree murder.

WJHL-TV reports Megan Boswell entered the plea Thursday, June 20, in a Sullivan County court. She was reportedly supposed to appear in court for a hearing regarding a change of venue for her case, but that hearing was delayed until August.

District Attorney Barry Staubus said the updated charges are based on new evidence his office found after Boswell’s indictment.

Her attorney, Gene Scott, said, "This girl is charged with first-degree murder, and she’s entitled to a fair trial, and I just want people to give her the benefit of the doubt. Give her a presumption of innocence and wait and see what the evidence actually shows."

Evelyn Mae Boswell was reported missing to the Sullivan County Sheriff’s Office on Feb. 18, 2020, but the 15-month-old girl had not been seen since Dec. 26, 2019. The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation (TBI) issued an Amber Alert on Feb. 19, 2020. Investigators took Megan Boswell into custody the next day in North Carolina on unrelated charges.

A break in the case occurred March 6, 2020, when detectives searched a property connected to one of Megan Boswell’s relatives. While there, they found human remains, which were later positively identified as Evelyn Boswell’s.

The 2nd Judicial District Attorney General’s Office charged Boswell in August 2020 with two counts of murder, one count of aggravated child abuse, one count of aggravated child neglect, one count of tampering with evidence, one count of abuse of a corpse, one count of failure to report a death under suspicious circumstances, and 12 counts of false reports. She reportedly provided conflicting information to investigators about her daughter’s whereabouts and whether Evelyn Boswell was alive.

TBI Special Agent Brian Fraley testified at a hearing in September 2022 and shared details about how and where her body was found. According to WJHL, Fraley said Megan Boswell’s father contacted the TBI and told them to look in a shed on his property. When they did, they discovered Evelyn Boswell’s remains wrapped in bags inside a playhouse, which was placed in a trash can.

Megan Boswell allegedly told investigators at first that her daughter died in a co-sleeping accident. A forensic pathologist, however, determined the girl died by asphyxiation.

The Tennessee Lookout reports Evelyn Boswell had been "tightly wound" in foil and a blanket and put inside the trash can while she was still alive. The pathologist, Dr. Darinka Mileusnic-Polchan, said Evelyn Boswell was "sort of compressed in the can" and her head was "completely tilted" back. Mileusnic-Polchan described the child as being in a "distorted fetal position" and said her face was "pretty much flattened."

Court records show Boswell’s trial is scheduled to begin Feb. 3, 2025.