A former North Carolina resident is asking the state to reconsider criminal charges against her that have been hanging over her head for the past decade. Joanne McDowell, previously a resident of Hendersonville for roughly five years, reached out to the North Carolina Department of Justice on May 11 by email to submit an official request for review of criminal prosecutions against her from more than 10 years ago.
Court records show that charges for obstruction of justice and child abduction were issued against McDowell after she took her young son with her and moved to Canada, despite having a shared custody agreement with her son’s father, Dr. Steven Buchman of Georgia.
McDowell said she believed her child was suffering abuse by his father. But the state’s courts ultimately found there was a lack of evidence that proved any wrongdoing on Buchman’s part and ordered continued visitation with his father. McDowell took her child and fled to Canada, where she’s also a citizen. The charges against her followed over the next few years.
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Carolina Public Press reached out to Buchman for comment, but he did not respond prior to publication. He did speak to CPP in 2017 for an earlier article about the situation, at which time he denied the allegations of abuse.
While North Carolina’s court system views McDowell as a fugitive, the Canadian courts see her in a different light. After she arrived in Canada in December 2012, according to Canada Border Services Agency travel records, the Canadian courts found that McDowell was simply trying to protect her child by leaving the United States, according to Canadian court documents.
Now, more than 10 years later, there continues to be an international stand-off between the North Carolina and Canadian courts. Canada sees her as a mother concerned for her child’s safety, but North Carolina sees her as a fugitive, even though authorities aren’t actively pursuing her, she said in her letter.
Meanwhile, McDowell is left trying to navigate the state of limbo the differing court opinions have left her in. While she told CPP recently that she has no desire to return to the US permanently, the prosecutions hanging over her head have made her life difficult. In her letter, she also questioned the purpose these charges serve now if she’s not being actively pursued.
By requesting a review of the case by North Carolina authorities, she hopes the charges could be dismissed once and for all.
The original case
As previously reported by CPP, McDowell and Buchman were in a six-month relationship in 2009 after meeting online. McDowell is originally from Canada but was teaching at an elementary school in Flat Rock at the time, while Buchman was teaching and practicing medicine at Emory University in Atlanta, where he still works today.
Their son was born in April 2010 and they came to an initial custody agreement the following March since they weren’t married, McDowell said in her recent letter to the NCDOJ. The custody arrangement allowed Buchman unsupervised overnight visits with his son, CPP previously reported, but these were suspended in September 2011 due to a protection order that was issued when “evidence” was presented alleging “sedation, abuse, and child-safety concerns” during the child’s visits with his father, McDowell said in her letter.
The protection order was dissolved in November 2011, at which point the child’s doctor, Dr. Charlotte Riddle, reported concerns to social services. During an investigation by the Buncombe County Department of Social Services, a USB drive with audio and video materials that McDowell had given to the agency as “evidence” was reportedly lost and the investigator on the case, Brandon Townsend, left the agency, McDowell said in her letter.
At this point, after speaking with others at social services, McDowell said she was informed that the case had been closed. She was not informed whether Townsend had been the one to close it or whether the agency simply closed along part of his outstanding caseload when he left the agency. She did not know whether the agency found her claims to be unsubstantiated. Nor did she know the whereabouts of the USB drive she had turned in. McDowell said her last contact with DSS was in September 2012, about a month before her custody hearing began, CPP reported in 2017.
When CPP questioned Buncombe DSS officials about the handling of the case in 2017, they declined to answer, citing confidentiality laws governing communications about child protective services cases.
After the case was heard in court over multiple days in October and November 2012, a judge ruled that there was “insufficient evidence” at the time to determine who sedated the child and granted joint legal custody of him to his parents, McDowell said in her letter.
Despite the ruling, McDowell said she was still concerned for her child after a custody exchange in December when he seemed to be experiencing “acute distress,” she said in her letter to the Department of Justice. She left for Canada with him soon after, arriving on Dec. 17, 2012, according to CBSA travel records and Canadian court documents.
Following her departure, Buchman sought an ex-parte order from the North Carolina court, which granted him sole custody of their son and found McDowell to be in criminal contempt, according to Canadian court documents. McDowell’s first charge of obstruction of justice was filed against her in February 2013, according to court records.
In June 2015, the Canadian courts issued an initial endorsement of motions to protect McDowell after she said she received notice in 2014 that Buchman may pursue a Hague motion, which would essentially force Canadian authorities to uphold the decision of the North Carolina courts. Justice Carolyn Horkins in Toronto took issue with what happened in North Carolina and considered the complaints “a serious and urgent matter involving a 5-year-old,” CPP previously reported.
In this endorsement, Canada superseded the ex-parte order from North Carolina and issued a restraining order against Buchman, preventing him from having any contact with McDowell and their son, according to Canadian court documents.
Buchman was given the opportunity to respond to the claims against him by July 20, 2015, or else McDowell could move forward with an “uncontested trial.” Buchman ultimately failed to respond by the deadline, failed to pursue a Hague motion and never made any other effort to enforce the ex-parte order he sought in January 2013, even though he knew where McDowell lived, according to Canadian court documents.
In December 2015, the Canadian courts made the restraining order against Buchman permanent and granted McDowell sole custody of the child, according to Canadian court documents.
Requests for review
McDowell’s most recent request for review, which she submitted to Criminal Bureau Chief Boz Zellinger at the North Carolina Department of Justice by email on May 11, is based primarily on a “chronology discrepancy” between North Carolina and Canadian records, as well as “previously unreviewed” video materials, according to her letter.
CBSA travel records and Canadian court documents show McDowell having entered Canada on Dec. 17, 2012, while the related North Carolina charges for obstruction of justice and child abduction show offense dates in January 2013. The “previously unreviewed” video materials were from her son’s therapy session in 2019, but McDowell didn’t identify them until this year, she said in her letter.
While living in Canada, McDowell has repeatedly made requests to North Carolina authorities to review her case, but so far most of them haven’t been fruitful.
Her first effort was reaching out to the authorities in Henderson County in April 2016. She said she never heard back from them, but learned the following month that the Henderson County DA was adding a felony child abduction charge against her, in addition to the existing felony obstruction of justice charge, McDowell said.
NC DHHS was willing to communicate with McDowell after CPP made certain inquiries to the agency, and they told her they would review the case, CPP reported. That review was conducted in February 2017 and sent to her by Section Chief Kevin Kelley later that month, and it stated, “the reviewers agree with the case decision of Services Not Recommended.”
But McDowell took issue with the one-page review because it didn’t mention any interviews being conducted, and McDowell said she, her family, her son’s medical providers, and the court-appointed psychiatrist were never contacted as part of the review. There also wasn’t an explanation for why the case was never officially closed with a letter, she said.
Unsatisfied with the review done by social services, McDowell attempted a factual review of her case based on the “chronology discrepancy” regarding her arrival in Canada and the offense dates for her charges in North Carolina. However, McDowell’s motion was denied by the judge due to “procedural barriers,” and it was argued that she wouldn’t be able to prove that she left the United States in December 2012, she said in her letter to NCDOJ.
In 2021, McDowell said in her letter that the case was transferred to the North Carolina Department of Justice following the removal of District Attorney Greg Newman from office. A group of families collectively filed a motion to have him removed due to “an alleged pattern of willful misconduct,” and were ultimately successful in April 2021.
NCDOJ has allegedly been aware of the “certified chronology-discrepancy evidence” since at least 2022, McDowell claimed in her letter.
Throughout all of this, McDowell said in her letter that no efforts have been made by North Carolina authorities to extradite her from Canada.
Then, in June 2025, she discovered her cases were dismissed with leave, but the arrest warrants were still active, McDowell told CPP.
Andrew Murray, district attorney for the 42nd prosecutorial district of North Carolina, said McDowell’s case is specifically under the “voluntary leave” category.
“There’s a lot of people that don’t show up that disappear, and I go back a couple years, and if they still haven’t been found, they haven’t been arrested, then it’s just sitting on the books,” Murray said. “So I just put voluntary leave, which takes them out of the active inventory, but they’re still there, they’re still in the clerk’s office, there’s still an order for arrest out. As soon as the order for arrest is served, then that case is reinstated.”
When asked why there hasn’t been more of an effort to extradite and arrest McDowell, Murray told CPP, “that’s completely above my pay grade.”
A former US attorney for Western North Carolina who was selected to replace Newman after his removal, Murray said he’s only been district attorney since 2021, so he hasn’t had much interaction with the case overall.
“This case had a lot of history, never was really on my radar,” Murray said. “(McDowell) asked me to review it, I reviewed it. She did not like the answers, so then she asked it to go to the Attorney General’s office, and I complied and asked the Attorney General’s office if they would take it and take a review, because she thought she wasn’t getting a fair shot because of whatever reason, and so the Attorney General got it, and they have the case now.”
He also doesn’t know whether any North Carolina agencies consulted the Federal Bureau of Investigation on the case, Murray said.
After roughly two weeks with no response from NCDOJ regarding her most recent request, McDowell followed up by email on May 26. She still has yet to hear back from them, she said.
McDowell living in limbo
“Due to my son’s trauma, I’ve had to be home,” McDowell said.
Her son is now in 10th grade. She’s homeschooled him since halfway through the first grade, after he tried to attend a regular school but found it difficult being there on his own. While some private schools may be an option for him, the financial hurdles make it difficult, she said.
“If I can’t work, I can’t afford to do that,” McDowell said. “The criminal prosecutions of me, first of all, the financial devastation has been enormous, simply in legal fees alone. It’s been hundreds of thousands of dollars in legal fees in the family law on the civil side, and then also on the criminal side, so that’s been devastating for me and for my family.”
The prosecutions against her have also made finding work difficult, she said.
“I used to be in sales and marketing,” McDowell said. “I cannot pursue any type of job like that, because it might involve travel, and I cannot travel because of my outstanding criminal charges.”
She also has to inform any potential employers about the prosecutions against her. Fortunately, because of her current legal status in Canada and the Canadian courts superseding the rulings of the North Carolina courts, her prosecutions didn’t prevent her from applying for a teaching certificate through the Ontario Certification of Teachers Board in 2023, she said.
“Essentially, in Canada, that process has been relatively smooth, because I have legal standing here in Canada,” McDowell said. “The problem is, teaching does not pay that much more here than it does in the States.”
Over the years, McDowell said they’ve received financial support from her mother and social support from Canada. Now, McDowell still homeschools her son during the day, but has been tutoring other kids in the evenings as her form of income since 2023.
At that point, when her son was 13, she said she felt safe to leave him home alone in the evenings, and the tutoring company she works for is aware of her background, she said.
Aside from the logistical challenges, McDowell said the charges hanging over her in North Carolina have been hard for her psychologically.
“I’m perfectly safe here and legal, but it’s humiliating,” McDowell said. “It’s been a huge blow to my reputation. It’s been a blow to my life professionally. It’s devastating to have to let people know this.”
Editor’s note: This article has been updated due to new information that became available.
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