New Jersey mom arrested after her missing teen son is found in her crawl space

A New Jersey mom was arrested after her teenage son was reported missing — and then found two days later by police hiding in the suspect’s basement, officials said Monday. Jennifer Buckley, a 48-year-old East Brunswick resident, was booked on suspicion of obstruction of administration of law, police said. She was taken into custody at a little after 3:30 p.m. EDT on Thursday, about 44 hours after her 17-year-old son had been reported missing, East Brunswick police Lt. Jason Fama said in a statement to NBC News on Monday. The boy’s father called East Brunswick police at 7:47 p.m. on Tuesday reporting that the teen “was scheduled to be dropped off at his residence at approximately” 6 p.m.

that day but never showed up, East Brunswick police said in a statement. The mom, Jennifer Buckley, “reported that her son was not at her residence” and “expressed concerns that her son may be a danger to himself,” police said. The father, Matthew Buckley, said he was confident their son wasn’t in any danger and was staying with his ex-wife the whole time. “Honestly, I wasn’t too worried,” Buckley, 50, told NBC News on Monday. “I knew she was pulling some BS like she always does.” During their search for the boy, “detectives identified several discrepancies in the information they had obtained,”