Deputies: Woman charged after children abandoned on Lake Hartwell’s ‘Cemetery Island’

ANDERSON COUNTY, S.C. (FOX Carolina) - The Anderson County Sheriff’s Office said a missing woman was found and arrested after she abandoned three of her children on Cemetery Island in Lake Hartwell.

Deputies said around 3:45 p.m., three children between ages 12 and 15 were found stranded on Cemetery Island by a passing boater.

The children said they were camping on the island with their mother, Courtney Taylor, and her boyfriend, Eric Elrod. Taylor and Elrod reportedly left the children on the island to get water and never returned.

Taylor was later located and charged with three counts of child neglect and each charge has a bond set for $5,000 each totaling in $15,000.

Elrod is wanted for distributing methamphetamine, deputies said. He has still not been located.

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