Harmon siblings safe and being returned to state custody

Published 3:12 pm Friday, March 4, 2022

The three children who have been missing since Feb. 18 have been located and are safe.

The three children, 15-year-old Jacob Harmon, 12-year-old Joshua Harmon, and 8-year-old Amber Harmon are currently undergoing the process of being returned to state custody, according to the report from the Carter County Sheriff’s Office.

The Harmons were placed in foster care in Carter County from where they reportedly ran away and were picked up by family members. Investigators recently stated that they believed they had absconded to either Watauga County or Avery County, N.C.

“The three children were Johnson County residents and had only been in Carter County for a few hours when they had left home. How they left that home and with whom, we do not know yet,” said Sheriff Dexter Lunceford. “They were located and taken into custody in Avery County, North Carolina, so this is going to be a multi-jurisdiction case as well.”

Lunceford said that the children were found at the residence of their grandparents with the assistance of the Marshals Service as well as both Carter County and Avery County investigators.

“They are in custody in North Carolina, and they will be brought back and put in the hands of the Tennessee Department of Children’s Services. At that point it will become a DCS investigation and we will assist in any way that we can,” Lunceford said. “I cannot speak to North Carolina’s statutes, but if there was a crime that occurred in Tennessee, we will place the appropriate charges on whoever assisted these children in fleeing the state.”