A 43-year-old woman wanted by authorities in Texas for allegedly taping her child to an ice machine and abandoning her in 2016 has been found in a Raleigh hospital.
WakeMed police on Monday charged Michele Roode Boyd with being a fugitive from justice. Boyd is wanted by the San Antonio police on felony charges, according to an arrest warrant filed Tuesday at the Wake County Magistrate's Office.
Boyd was a patient at WakeMed for 10 days and was listed as "Jane Doe" after she refused to disclose her identity to the medical officials who were treating her. She later went into a coma, according to the arrest warrant.
Local investigators think Boyd might have mental health issues. She has lived all over the country since she allegedly abandoned her daughter. Police in Texas think Boyd is a danger to herself, as well as her daughter.
San Antonio police have been looking for Boyd since Nov. 25, 2016, when officers were called in the early-morning hours to a Walgreens store. An employee told the officers that a child was found taped to an ice machine in the parking lot, according to the San Antonio arrest warrant filed with the Wake magistrate.
The Walgreens employee told the officers that the child, a middle schooler, had her arms taped behind her back and tape around her mouth.
The child told the police that her mother tied her up and left her at the ice station.
A detective reviewed surveillance video and saw the mother and child inside the store at about 11:30 p.m. the prior day. A store employee told a detective that Boyd was trying to shoplift several items. The employee called the police, but Boyd and her daughter had already left the store.
Hours later, just before 2:15 a.m., police were called a second time and found the child tied to the ice machine. Investigators found tape on the machine that corroborated the child's story.
Investigators later learned that the girl's stepsister told a school guidance counselor that she was worried about her sibling. She said that Boyd had stuffed a towel in the girl's mouth, secured it with duct tape and tied her up with rope the day of the alleged shoplifting incident.
The girl was released to her father.
Boyd is being held at the Wake County jail. Her mother is coming from Florida "to get her," according to the arrest warrant.