Montrose mother who abducted child in 2025 enters plea
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ELKINS -- A plea agreement has been reached in the case of a Montrose woman accused of abducting her biological child and fleeing to South Carolina in 2025.
Megan Rae Fauntleroy, 41, appeared in Randolph County Circuit Court Wednesday, pleading guilty to one count of removal of a minor child from a custodian, a felony.
On Oct. 27, the Randolph County grand jury indicted Fauntleroy on one count of concealment or removal of a minor child from custodian or from person entitled to visitation and one count of conspiracy, also a felony.
Fauntleroy was represented in court Wednesday by attorney Gregory Tingler. The state was represented by special prosecutor Dennis Kittle, who is an assistant prosecutor in Barbour County. Randolph County Circuit Court Judge Jaymie Wilfong presided over the case and accepted Fauntleroy’s plea.
Kittle informed the court that, as part of the plea agreement, the conspiracy charge against Fauntleroy would be dismissed. The state would also be dismissing a case against Fauntleroy where she was charged with two counts of false reporting to an officer, a misdemeanor, in April.
Kittle also noted the Barbour County Prosecutor Andrew Phillips agreed to drop three charges filed against Fauntleroy in October if this plea agreement were to go through. According to magistrate court records, on Oct. 13, Fauntleroy was charged in Barbour County with one count of concealment or removal of minor child from custodian, as well as two separate counts of violation of protective order, a misdemeanor. On Oct. 21, Barbour County Magistrate Daniel Harris found probable cause for the felony charge in that jurisdiction.
Prior to Wilfong accepting the plea agreement Wednesday, Kittle laid out the factual basis for the Randolph County case. Kittle stated that, on Dec. 27, 2025, the state of West Virginia was granted legal custody of Megan Fauntleroy and Darries Lamar Fauntleroy’s child. On that same date, the Fauntleroys left the state of West Virginia with the child. The three were later found in South Carolina by United State Marshals, Kittle said.
According to the criminal complaints, filed by Senior Trooper A.P. Petrella of the Elkins Detachment of the West Virginia State Police, a state Department of Health and Human Resources employee told police that the DHHR was the current custodian of the child. 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. The Fauntleroys were arrested on Jan. 11.
Megan Fauntleroy is scheduled to be sentenced on Dec. 23 in Randolph County Circuit Court.
Megan Fauntleroy was charged in Randolph County alongside her husband, Darries Fauntleroy, 43, of Montrose. Darries Fauntleroy was also charged with removal of a minor child from a custodian and conspiracy. On Oct. 27, he was indicted by a Randolph County grand jury on one count of concealment or removal of a minor child from custodian and one count of conspiracy.