M. Fauntleroy

D. Fauntleroy

Megan Rae Fauntleroy, 40, has been charged with removal of a minor child from a custodian and conspiracy. She is being held in the Tygart Valley Regional Jail on a $100,000 cash-only bond, set by Randolph County Magistrate Tracy M. Harper.

Darries Lamar Fauntleroy, 42, has been charged with removal of a minor child from a custodian and conspiracy. He is being held in the Tygart Valley Regional Jail on a $25,000 cash-only bond, set by Harper.

According to the criminal complaint, prepared by Senior Trooper A.P. Petrella of the Elkins Detachment of the West Virginia State Police, on Jan. 9 at about 10:30 p.m., Petrella received a direct complaint from a state Department of Health and Human Resources employee saying that the Fauntleroy couple had left the state of West Virginia with a 7-year-old child.

Officials learned that the Fauntleroys had traveled to South Carolina, and that their Montrose residence was now “empty,” the complaint states.

The DHHR employee later told police that the DHHR were the current custodians of the 7-year-old, according to the complaint. The employee said she had contacted Darries Fauntleroy on Jan. 10 and he said he and the child were in New Jersey. He allegedly provided a New Jersey address which police later determined did not exist.

Using police technology, the State Police Elkins Communications office “searched the License Plate Reader database and located” Darries Fauntleroy’s vehicle “traveling on 1-77 South in Kanawha County” on Dec. 27, according to the complaint. In the License Plate Reader photograph, the truck was “loaded with appliances.”

The State Police Elkins Communications office then “pinged Megan Fauntleroy’s cellular phone and returned a location of Kingstree, South Carolina,” the complaint states.

According to the DHHR employee, a previous court order stated that Megan Fauntleroy was to have no contact with the child, including phone calls, the complaint reads.