Mother charged with felony child neglect, bond set at $1 million
The search for a North Carolina man suspected in the abandonment of his toddler daughter and stepson in Scott County late last month continued at press time this week while the children’s mother remained in custody at the Scott County Detention Center.
The two-year-old girl was found dead January 23, the day after and her seven-year-old stepbrother was found wondering in the woods by hunters in the southeastern portion of the county.
Authorities are searching for James Harrison Jr. while the mother, Amy Harrison, also of North Carolina, has been charged with felony child neglect. Judge Ben McCurdy set her bond at $1 million. The boy, her son by another man, is in protective custody of the Department of Human Services and is currently living with a Scott County deputy and his family.
“There are no new leads to the whereabouts of James Harrison,” Scott County Sheriff Mike Lee said Monday. “We have notified all law enforcement agencies, railroad authorities, and are circulating his picture out there but there have been no sightings. We are also continuing to search the area around where he was last seen in the event he didn’t make it out of the woods.”
Sheriff Lee said the young boy’s grandparents and father have visited him and DHS is awaiting different test results to determine the child’s best interest.
Lee said last week that the Harrisons of Salisbury, North Carolina, were traveling through Mississippi with the children on January 21 when they got in an argument on Interstate 20 near the Lake/Lawrence exit.
Apparently Amy Harrison got out of the vehicle, walked to the truck stop at that exit and called someone to pick her up.
Scott County Coroner Van Thames said at the time that the father later abandoned the children in the vehicle. The boy and girl walked away from the truck but got separated. The boy approached a hunter in the woods asking for help, and that started a search by law enforcement.
Deputies found the truck off Tanglewood Road in a wooded area in southeast Scott County. The toddler was found dead from what appears to be hypothermia, Thames said, but an autopsy is being done. The coroner also said James Harrison Jr. is diabetic and did not have medicine with him.
Lee said Amy Harrison reported her husband and children missing Friday. She told deputies that she last saw them Thursday after she and her husband argued. Investigators are questioning Amy Harrison as to why she waited a day to report her family missing.
James Harrison was last seen south of Lake walking on Tanglewood Road in Newton County. He was last seen wearing a red shirt, blue jeans, and no shoes and had earrings in both ears.
Contact the Scott County Sheriff’s Office at 601-469-1511 with any information.
