JUSTICE FOR MEGAN MAXWELL: Cocke Co. authorities search river for missing teen

Thursday, June 4, 2009

Cocke Co. authorities search river for missing teen

By SHELBY BAKER
6 News Reporter

NEWPORT (WATE) -- Cocke County authorities searched the French Broad River Monday for a missing 19-year-old woman whose car was found destroyed by a fire.

Megan Maxwell is 5' 6" and weighs around 115 pounds.

She was last seen wearing a blue sweat shirt and blue jeans with large holes in them.

Police say Maxwell was last heard from at 4:27 a.m. on Sunday, April 26.

Her red 2001 Mitsubishi Eclipse was found on East Highway 25/70 destroyed by fire and police say they suspect foul play.

Lisa Maxwell prays and waits for any word on her daughter, Megan. "Words can't describe it. I'm numb."

She was with Newport Rescue crews all day Monday as they searched a section of the French Broad River, about 150 yards from where Megan's car was found.

"Right now, we are just concentrating on her last known location and it's not really that big of an area so we are trying to put together that time frame," says Newport Police Chief Maurice Shults.

The chief says they're following up on several leads and trying to stay optimistic. "As time passes, we begin to lose hope that she is missing, and we think maybe it's worse than we first expected."

Since Megan was reported missing Sunday morning, family and friends have been calling her cell phone non-stop and leaving messages.

"I said Megan please call, everyone is worried about you, and with everything I've heard I just want you to call us so somebody will know you are ok," says friend Laura Goode.

Meanwhile, Megan's mother is asking anyone with information to come forward.

"It's important to get in touch with the police department, any lead right now is critical," said Maxwell.

Police say they plan to continue searching for Megan Tuesday morning. Her car will also be turned over to forensics.

If you have information about Megan's whereabouts or the car fire, call the Newport Police Department at (423)-623-5556 ext. 105 or the office of District Attorney General Jimmy Dunn at (423)-623-1285.

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MEGAN MAXWELL CASE TIMELINE:

April 26th, 2009 - Sometime After 12:00 a.m. – Maxwell receives a call to go check on her father because he has been “in a situation.”

- 4:00 a.m. – Police reportedly respond to Maxwell’s father’s home on Mineral Street in Newport. Family members say Megan, her father and Jeffrey Lee Stock, 41 were there. Stock was allegedly drunk and belligerent, but not arrest was made.

- 4:27 a.m. – Megan calls her best friend to tell her she is finishing a cigarette and driving back to her grandmother’s home in Newport.

- Between 4:30 a.m. and 6:15 a.m. – Witnesses see Stock driving Maxwell’s 2001 Mitsubishi Eclipse. One told investigators that stock stopped to ask for a lighter, and kept “fiddling around” with something in the trunk.

- 6:15 a.m. – An off-duty Newport Police Officer spots Megan’s car on fire along East Highway 25/70 near the French Broad River. Evidence found in the car leads investigators to believe she may have ended up in the river.

April 27th, 2009 - Authorities begin searching up and down the French Broad River for Megan’s body. The search goes on for weeks.

April 30th, 2009 - Governor Phil Bredesen authorizes a $10,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of any person responsible for the disappearance or death of Megan Maxwell.

May 9th, 2009 - Jeffrey Lee Stock is taken into custody for violating the newly enacted “Adam Walsh Act.” He was indicted by a federal grand jury for being a convicted sex offender who traveled to the state of Indiana without registering. Stock was added to the Tennessee Sex Offender Registry after being convicted of sexual battery in 1997.

June 2nd, 2009 - The Cocke County Sheriff’s Office confirms Jeffrey Lee Stock is considered a person of interest in the Maxwell disappearance. Police say evidence put Stock at Megan’s father’s home the night she disappeared and Mr. Maxwell had Stock’s car towed from his home sometime after Megan’s car had been discovered burning.

- Lisa Maxwell, Megan’s mother tells Volunteer TV News that her daughter knew Stock as an acquaintance of her father and that, “She didn't like him and I know that she had run him off from up there before."

June 6th, 2009 - Megan Maxwell's story is featured on America's Most Wanted.

September, 21st, 2009 - Jeffrey Lee Stock enters a guilty plea in federal court to violating the Adam Wash Act. He still refuses to cooperate with the investigation into Maxwell’s death.

March 11th, 2010 - Stock is sentenced to six years in a federal prison for violating the Adam Walsh Act. He is transported to Arizona to serve his term at the United States Penitentiary-Tucson. He'll remain there until 2014 and spend the rest of his life on federal supervised release.

November 4th, 2010 - A man walking his dog along Ponderosa Road near Parrottsville spots what appears to be a human skull and some bones. Cocke County deputies, Newport Police and the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation close access to the scene and begin searching the wooded area for more remains. They reportedly discover clothing on the scene as well. - The remains are taken to the University of Tennessee Regional Forensic Center in Knoxville.

November 5th, 2010 - Cocke County Sheriff Armondo Fontes calls a news conference to announce confirmation that the remains are those of Megan Maxwell.