SC, Courtney Danielle Taylor, reported missing, abandoned her 3 stranded children on Lake Hartwell Cemetery island, 13 June 2022 *Arrest

[imstilla.grandma]

Anderson County Sheriff's Office investigators say Courtney D. Taylor was last seen Monday leaving Cemetery Island. The sheriff's office had posted a picture of her on Monday on Facebook, classifying her as a missing person.

In a release on Tuesday afternoon, officials from the sheriff's office said deputies responded about 3:45 p.m. Monday to the lake where three children, ages 12, 13 and 15, were found stranded on the island by a passing boater.

The children told deputies they had been camping on the island the night before with their mother, Courtney Danielle Taylor, and her boyfriend, Eric Michael Elrod.

They said Taylor and Elrod left the island earlier in the morning, with Taylor telling her children that she was going to get water but she never returned.

The vehicle that the subjects had been traveling in was also gone from where it has been left parked, officials said.

Taylor and Elrod were entered into the National Crime Information Center database as missing persons.

Deputies said Taylor was arrested in Pickens County Tuesday afternoon and is charged with three counts of unlawful neglect of a child.

Elrod is wanted by the Pickens County Sheriff’s Office for General Session bench warrants relating to an original charge of distribution of methamphetamine and other charges, according to deputies.

Anyone with information is asked to call 864-260-4405 referencing ACSO case number 2022-08094, or contact Crimestoppers at 1-888-CRIME-SC, which is 1-888-274-6372.

Woman reported missing arrested for abandoning children on Lake Hartwell island, deputies say

Courtney D. Taylor is charged with three counts of unlawful child neglect

www.wyff4.com

 

[imstilla.grandma]

Courtney Taylor, and her boyfriend, Eric Elrod, were initially reported missing after the children, ages 12, 13, and 15, were found Monday afternoon on Cemetery Island — the only portion of a Revolutionary War soldier’s massive estate remaining after Hartwell Dam flooded in the area in 1962.

The children told Anderson County, South Carolina, investigators that they arrived on the Lake Hartwell island to camp on Sunday and spent the night and that Taylor and Elrod left Monday morning to get water but hadn’t returned, WYFF reported.

Lake Hartwell, showing Cemetery Island/Google Maps
But Tuesday afternoon, investigators said Taylor had been arrested in neighboring Pickens County and charged with three counts of unlawful neglect of a child. She was released the following day after posting a $15,000 personal recognizance bond, according to jail records.

Elrod, wanted on bench warrants relating to an original charge of distribution of methamphetamine and other charges in Pickens County, had not been located and was still at large.

Mom ABANDONS HER 3 KIDS on SC ‘Cemetery Island’ TO RUN OFF WITH BOYFRIEND

A passing boater found three children on an island in a popular recreational lake along the South Carolina-Georgia state line, and now their mother has been arrested for abandoning them there. Courtney Taylor, and her boyfriend, Eric Elrod, were initially reported missing after the children...

www.crimeonline.com

 

[borndem]

Did the two of them just get into a drugged-up fog and forget about the children? Or what?

So glad the kids have been found. Hoping there are caring relatives who can take care of them. SMH.