Amanda Marie Dotson says dozens of angry callers have threatened her this week
An Anderson County woman is speaking out after getting threatening calls and Facebook messages meant for someone else.
Amanda Marie Dotson, of Clinton, says her phone started ringing soon after local media outlets reported a story about a Roane County child who died from malnutrition.
According to Roane County Sheriff Jack Stockton, two year old Clifford Dotson weighed just 12 pounds when he died earlier this month. Stockton said the child suffered from neglect and spent most of his life in a car seat, only eating once a day.
Authorities are now preparing a case against the boy's parents, Matthew and Amanda Ann Dotson.
According to Amanda Marie Dotson, the two women are not related, and do not know each other.
However, that hasn't stopped dozens of callers from contacting and threatening her since the story broke, believing she was Dotson's mother.
"I started getting phone calls on Wednesday and Thursday," she explained. "It's just people giving me funny looks when [I] walk into a store and give them my ID."
Dotson, whose own child is almost 10, says she feels compelled to eat lunch with her daughter at school in order to prove to people that she feeds her.
"I'm afraid of the looks I'll get, and what people will say and anything like that," she said.
"My child will eat before I do!"
Before the name mix-up, Dotson said her cell phone number was listed on her Facebook profile. She has since removed it.
She hopes her story is a lesson to others, encouraging them to think before they act, especially when contacting people they do not know.
"People need to look into it before they start judging other people."
Sheriff Stockton has said officials have a very strong case against the parents of Clifford Dotson, and the evidence will be presented to a grand jury in June.
The couple have another child, 6, who is now in D.C.S. custody.
Charges have not yet been filed in the child's death.