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, 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.
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.
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[Featured image: Courtney Taylor/Anderson County Sheriff’s Office]