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By John Holland | SunSentinel.com
3:48 PM EST, December 26, 2008
MIAMI - Meagan McCormic gave quite a performance, her tearful pleas and photos of a kidnapped baby riveting viewers and sending two dozen detectives scurrying on Christmas Day.
She even bought clothes for little Riley Buchness and tucked them neatly into a bedroom drawer, police say.
But McCormic made up the whole story -- in fact, she fabricated the baby itself -- in a twisted attempted to hang on to a boyfriend living 1,400 miles away, police said today.
"She really thought this out and took great steps to try to fool everybody,'' police Cmdr. Delrish Moss said.
They pressed her on a series of inconsistencies and she finally broke down early today and told the truth, Moss said.
McCormic has been charged with a misdemeanor of filing a false police report, and police also want her to pay for the overtime and expenses that went a search that began on Wednesday.
Riley's plight led local newscasts and tugged at hearts on Christmas Eve and Day.
At the time, a sobbing McCormic blamed a mysterious French nanny named Camile for the boy's disappearance.
"I don't even know if he's dead or alive, if he was in a car accident,'' McCormic said, claiming she left her baby with Camile, whom she had used to watch the boy for many months.
John Buchness stood beside his girlfriend, also crying.
Actually, McCormic had a miscarriage in March, but told Buchness she had had his child, police said.
Buchness arrived from Boston this week to see his baby, and McCormic came up with the kidnapping story, according to the arrest affidavit.
All of the pictures of baby Riley -- including one that circulated nationwide on an Amber Alert -- were plucked from the Internet, detectives said.
Moss said police have no idea of the real identity of the baby in the photo, and Buchness was not aware of the hoax.
The case took an emotional toll on detectives, other officers who joined the search and especially on Buchness, who believed his only son was in danger, Moss said.
"This poor guy was sucked in emotionally. Remember, even though the baby didn't exist, he thought he had a little boy,'' Moss said. "He flew down from Boston excited to see his baby on Christmas. And just like that, it's taken from him. To him, that baby was real.''
The report also affected officers who missed out on time with their family on Christmas to join the search.
"A lot of these guys have kids of their own, so there's a connection,'' Moss said. "Then you start worrying about the most horrible things that could happen. We all know that the more time that goes by, there's more chance that this isn't going to end well.''
When Buchness arrived, he was told Riley was out with the nanny, police said.
As time passed, McCormic even used a separate cell phone to call and pretend she was Camile, explaining she would be late returning the baby, according to police.
By Wednesday, the baby hadn't materialized, and the couple called police.
They described Camile as a woman with a heavy French accent driving a red Acura that possibly had Massachusetts license plates.
Buchness wanted to break up last year, and McCormic wanted to keep the relationship going, police said.
She hid the miscarriage from Buchness because "she felt that the only way to keep him around was to keep the baby alive and away from the father,'' detectives wrote in an arrest report.
When she finally confessed, McCormic showed some emotion, but police aren't sure she was sincere, Moss said.
"Either she was upset because she was so emotionally invested in her story, or because the weight of what she had done finally hit her,'' Moss said. "Or maybe she's just one hell of an actress.''
United States
Too many soap operas and reality tv.