ALBEMARLE — On June 13, Cpt. Chris Huneycutt, who leads investigations for the Stanly County Sheriff’s Office (SCSO), confirmed to SCJ that additional crimes have been issued in an ongoing investigation regarding two Stanly County adults who face a series of charges that include child abduction.
Marissa Grace Bolton and Alois James Bolton, both 34, were charged on June 6 with “multiple allegations of illegal activity” at their property at 8414 Harvell Road in Stanfield after search warrants were executed, deputies said.
Marissa Bolton was charged with sexual servitude of an adult victim, second degree forcible sexual offense, abduction of a child, felony conspiracy, delivery of a schedule II controlled substance, sexual battery, contributing to the delinquency of a juvenile and misdemeanor child abuse. On June 9, she was handed down more charges: two counts of statutory rape of a child aged 15 or less, one count of sexual battery, and one count of crimes against nature.
In the initial set of charges on June 6, Alois Bolton was arrested for felony conspiracy and abduction of a child.
According to the Stanly County Sheriff’s Office website, Marissa Bolton is still in the Stanly County Jail while Alois Bolton is not.
Huneycutt said that he has seen posts on social media alleging that the Boltons had been abducting random children but that the offenders and the victims did in fact know each other.
Due to the speculative nature of the rumors, the sheriff’s office has cleared the air in order to protect the victims’ anonymity.
“We had identified that these weren’t random acts and we have been in contact with those victims’ families, so to broadcast that to the public would have been very irresponsible because there was no public threat,” Huneycutt added. “If they had been riding around grabbing kids from parks that they didn’t know, then obviously we would have pushed that information out immediately. Because that wasn’t the case, we released information in the way that we did to protect our victims.”
The SCSO initially addressed these claims in a press release statement: “We would like to let the public know that the social media posts of children being picked up in a van, drugged or held captive are incorrect. The child abduction charges are not random child abductions, but involve instances of having and keeping minors against the parents’ consent.
“The video circulating of the “Fight Club” is not related in any way to the individuals of this investigation and has already been investigated by the Stanfield Police Department,” the statement continued. “This is a completely separate incident, which has also been falsely linked to this investigation.”
While the specificities of the investigation have remained private to do confidentiality, Huneycutt confirmed that there are three victims involved in the case. The SCSO is actively attempting to identify other potential victims — anyone who believes their child may have been a victim of a crime involving the Boltons is asked to call 704-986-3700.