Watch CBS News

Boy In Maine Mystery Identified As Camden Pierce Hughes

CONCORD (CBS) - A boy found dead in Maine Saturday has been identified as 6-year-old Camden Pierce Hughes of Texas. WBZ-TV was first to break the news Wednesday afternoon.

WBZ-TV's Ken MacLeod reports.

His mother, Juli McCrery of Irving, Texas, is in Massachusetts State Police custody in Concord and has confessed to giving her son an overdose of cough syrup that resulted in his death, sources tell WBZ-TV.

See: Boy's Family, Maine Residents React

"We were together for two years, but I've known (the boy) since the day he was born," said Robert Miller, McCrery's ex-boyfriend who also lives in Irving, Texas. "He was a very nice boy. He was an innocent boy."

Web Extra: Juli McCrery Leaves State Police Barracks

Camden Pierce Hughes's body was discovered in South Berwick, Maine over the weekend, wrapped in a blanket next to a dirt road. During a news conference at the Massachusetts State Police barracks in Concord, a state police spokesperson said that the case has been referred to the New Hampshire Attorney General's Office.

WBZ-TV's Christina Hager reports from Hampton, N.H.

Hampton Hotel
A New Hampshire state police crime truck is parked outside a hotel in Hampton, N.H. (credit: Karen Anderson/CBS)

Wednesday evening investigators from New Hampshire State Police were at a hotel on Route One in Hampton. Motel clerks say police spent much of the day going door to door interviewing clerks.

The owner of Summer Wind, along the popular Hampton Beach strip says police asked her if she had seen a woman fitting McCrery's description. "They said she was going around saying she only had $25 and she was looking for a motel trying to barter."

She says the woman did not stop at her place, but several miles up Route One, police converged on the Stone Gable Inn, where some guests remember her.

"She wasn't a very nice person. She was introverted, kept to herself. She was asking for cigarettes; asking for everything for free," says Larry Regan, who's staying in a room above the one police are scouring.

He says he never saw the boy, but that when he walked by the room, he heard her yelling at someone he assumed was a child. "Typical screaming of a parent that was irate."

He and several motel clerks say they wish they had seen the boy, thinking they may have been able to help.

The break in the case came late Wednesday morning, when a Massachusetts state trooper spotted a blue Toyota Tacoma pickup truck at a Chelmsford rest area off I-495.

WBZ-TV's Peg Rusconi reports.

The truck matched the description of a vehicle witnesses spotted at the Maine crime scene on Saturday.

WBZ NewsRadio 1030's Jim Smith reports.

Podcast

Sources told WBZ NewsRadio 1030 that the driver of that truck, a woman in her 40's, was taken into protective custody after making statements regarding the death of her son. That woman has since been identified as McCrery.

Pickup truck
The truck was taken from the rest stop on I-495 in Chelmsford this morning. (Photo courtesy: lowellsun.com)

The truck, which had Navy insignia on the license plate, was taken to the State Police barracks in Danvers for processing. Around 4:30 p.m. she was taken from the barracks to a local hospital for a mental health evaluation.

For days police have been seeking the public's help to identify the boy. They released a computer generated photo of a blond-haired, blue-eyed boy wearing a gray camouflage hoodie.

Autopsy results on Camden's body have not been released.

WBZ-TV's Christina Hager contributed to this report.

View CBS News In
CBS News App Open
Chrome Safari Continue
Be the first to know
Get browser notifications for breaking news, live events, and exclusive reporting.