Police Make Arrest in Connection with Fugitive Couple

Local authorities were still hunting for a New Hampshire couple accused of brutally abusing a three-year-old boy.

Beverly police located a gray 1996 Honda Civic on Dunham Road near the North Shore Music Theatre at approximately 12:45 a.m. Sunday and took one female into custody.

According to scanner reports, the female was not Jessica Linscott, however, police had issued an updated alert around midnight to be on the lookout for the vehicle, which they believed Linscott and her boyfriend, Roland Dow, were driving.

Police said they believed the couple fled from a house where they were staying on Dunham Road around 11 p.m. in the Honda Civic.

At approximately 1 a.m., after locating the vehicle and taking the female into custody, Beverly officers said they would be checking the home again to make sure Linscott and Dow didn't double back.

Officers, state troopers and K-9 units scoured the area along Brimbal Avenue for several hours -- well into the wee morning hours -- hunting for the couple. At one point, it appeared they found them, but it turned out to be a male and female who were both intoxicated and did not appear to be connected to the case at all.

Earlier that night, police had issued an alert to area departments to be on the lookout for an entirely different vehicle -- a blue 2009 Dodge Caravan with New Hampshire license plates.

The minivan, which was registered out of Newton, N.H. to a relative of the couple, was seen heading north from Beverly around 8 p.m. and police believed Linscott and Dow may have been heading back up to New Hampshire or Maine in the vehicle.

According to reports, the couple had been spotted at a Dunham Road home earlier in the day.

Linscott, 23, and Dow, 27, of Plaistow, N.H., are both wanted on multiple charges of assault, neglect and endangering a child in connection with severe abuse and physical injury inflicted on Linscott's three-year-old son.

The boy is being treated at a New Hampshire hospital. He was originally dropped off by the couple at hospital on Nov. 14 and doctors reported he showed signs of head injuries and his body was covered with bruises and burns.

The couple then went missing and police have received tips in recent days of possible sightings of the couple around the North Shore.