Despite sightings, NH couple still on the run

PLAISTOW, N.H. (WHDH) -- A manhunt is underway for a mother and her boyfriend who are accused of abusing her young child. Someone in Beverly thought they saw the couple over the weekend, but after an extensive search the police came up empty handed.

Tips poured in to several different police stations in Massachusetts.

Police in Peabody said they received a number of calls from people who think they saw the wanted New Hampshire couple. For a week, police have been chasing leads around the North Shore but have yet to find the couple wanted for child abuse.

The grandmother of the abused child said the boy is doing better and is in good spirits. The grandmother is pleading with the public to help find the mother and boyfriend.

A reported sighting of a New Hampshire couple on the run had police searching a Beverly neighborhood into the early morning hours Sunday.

Massachusetts State Police and canine units combed the area around a Dunham Road house where a tipster believed Jessica Linscott and her boyfriend Roland Dow were staying.

The two are accused of taking off after leaving her 3-year-old son at a New Hampshire hospital, beaten, burned and blinded.

Beverly Police now say their tipster was mistaken. Another man named Roland, who looked similar to Dow and had been a guest at the Beverly home.

A Beverly woman admitted to police she had given a ride to a man named Roland and his girlfriend. When police tracked that man down, they discovered he wasn't Dow, but they arrested him for his own outstanding warrant.

Over the last week police have responded to reports the pair was seen in Swampscott, Lynn and Malden. So far the tips haven't led police to the suspects.

Police believe the couple could have returned to New Hampshire or could be in Maine.