BRENTWOOD, N.H. — Authorities looking for a New Hampshire mother and boyfriend suspected of endangering her 3-year-old son have urged the couple to turn themselves into police.

“We suspect they’re still in the area,” Rockingham County Jim Reams said Wednesday.

Reams said that anyone suspected of helping to hide the couple also could face charges. The couple are from Plaistow; the search for them has extended in Massachusetts.

Police in Plaistow received a call last week from Exeter Hospital that a child with significant head injuries and burns was being treated there. The boy was later taken to Children’s Hospital at Dartmouth in Lebanon, where is recovering after surgery.

Reams said the boy was improving, but his condition was still serious.

The boy’s mother, Jessica Linscott, 23, and her boyfriend, Roland Dow, 27, had planned to go to police Monday, but did not show up, Plaistow police said. They had said the boy’s injuries were self-inflicted, but doctors rejected that.

Linscott is charged with multiple counts of child endangerment for failing to get medical attention for her son when he was suffering seizures from a head injury and for failure to protect him from harm. The complaints against her, all misdemeanors, cover conduct on the dates of Nov. 12-14.

Dow is charged with first- and second-degree assault. Police say he struck the boy hard enough in the head on Nov. 12 to cause traumatic brain injury. He also is accused of burning the child’s fingers and wrist. Police also have charged him with five counts of child endangerment, saying he failed to protect or seek medical attention for the boy.


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