JUSTICE FOR MEGAN MAXWELL

Thursday, June 4, 2009

Person of interest in Cocke County teen's disappearance

Jun 2, 2009

NEWPORT, Tenn. (WVLT) -- Megan Maxwell has now been missing for more than 5 weeks.

But new tonight, details of a man arrested on an unrelated charge, but perhaps not unrelated to her disappearance.

Cocke county Sheriff Claude Strange confirms 41 year old Jeffrey Lee Stock is being held on a sex offender violation.

Strange calls him a person of interest in Maxwells disappearance.

Megan's mother says Jeffrey Lee Stock was a friend of Megan's father, and was last seen with Megan by a police officer.

Megan's mother Lisa Maxwell says, "I think there's some people out there who know something. They're just not speaking up and I don't understand that."

The Cocke County Sheriff identifies 41 year old Jeffrey Lee Stock as a person of interest in connection with Megan's disappearance.

He's being held on an unrelated sex offender violation but Newport police say evidence puts Stock at Megan's father's home, the last place she was seen alive.

Megan's father had Stock's car towed from his home the morning she disappeared.

"The first encounter anyone with law enforcement was when he came back when the wrecker was loading the truck," says Newport Police Chief Maurice Shults.

Maxwell says her daughter only knew Stock as an acquaintance of her father's.

"She didn't like him and I know that she had run him off from up there before," says Maxwell.

It was just over an hour and a half later when Megan's Mitsubishi Eclipse was found burning off Old Asheville Highway.

Maxwell's mother says police told her Stock was seen driving Megan's car and visiting acquaintances moments before the car was found burning.

"Said Jeff pulled up in the car and asked for a lighter and was fiddling with something in the trunk of the car," says Maxwell.

Maxwell says she feels Stock had something to do with her daughter's disappearance but says she's committed to finding her daughter.

Maxwell says, "I want Megan found no matter what it takes, no matter who we got to get in here to get it done. The number one thing is finding Megan."

Stock's case of failing to register as a sex offender was sent to a Cocke County Grand Jury May 20th.

Lisa Maxwell says they're offering a five hundred dollar reward for any information on jewelry and stereo equipment, she says, was stolen from Megan's vehicle.

Megan's case will be featured on the show "America's Most Wanted" this Saturday June 6th.

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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.