Crime & Safety

Fugitive Couple Continues to Evade Police

Roland Dow allegedly burned Jessica Linscott's son, who is in serious condition.

A Plaistow couple charged with battering, burning and endangering a 3-year-old continue to remain on the run.

Police have received tips that Jessica Linscott, 23—the mother of the boy—and her boyfriend, Roland Dow, 27, were recently at gas stations and coffee shops in the North Shore part of Massachusetts, according to the Boston Herald. Sightings have been reported on Swampscott and Lynn. The pair were reportedly seen in a red Volvo with green bumper stickers and a luggage rack.

Dow is charged with first- and second-degree assault for allegedly hitting the child in the head and burning his fingers and wrist.

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The boy, James, reportedly suffered a head injury that impaired his vision. 

Police said they discovered the boy's injuries after he was treated at Exeter Hospital last week.

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James is in now stable condition at Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center in Lebanon, NH.

On Wednesday, Rockingham County Attorney Jim Reams demanded that Dow and Linscott turn themselves in.

"No matter where you go, (police) are going to find you," Reams said at a news conference at Rockingham County Superior Court in Brentwood Wednesday. "Surrender yourselves."

Linscott is charged with child endangement.

Reams said the pair are likely traveling in a car and may have people helping them avoid capture. He said he has no reason to believe Dow is holding Linscott against her will.

The 3-year-old's grandmother, Helen Nicholson, of Melrose, Mass., told the Manchester Union-Leader newspaper that her son, who died two years ago, was the boy's father.

The boy's grandfather told the Herald he can't believe the injuries inflicted on the child.

“They had to be doing drugs to do something like that to a baby,” he said. “There’s no way a normal person would do something like that.”

Anyone with information on the couple's whereabouts is asked to call Plaistow police at 603-382-6816.


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