2-year-old in diaper found wandering in parking lot

A Jonesboro Police Department patrol car. Photo by Stan Morris.

JONESBORO, Ark. – A child was found sweating, saturated in urine and begging strangers for help in a Jonesboro parking lot Tuesday afternoon.

At 2:19 p.m., the incident report from JPD says Officer Jeremy Smith arrived to a parking lot (the location was masked, for an unknown reason) in Jonesboro. He made contact with a witness who said an approximately 2-year-old infant knocked on her door. For almost an hour, she had been trying to find the child’s guardians.  She said the child was wearing a diaper, one sock, and was sweating and saturated in urine.

It was 93 degrees outside at the time, the officer noted. 

The child was carrying a set of keys with several bar code tags from different businesses. The officer began to contact the businesses to which the bar codes were assigned but he found no help. Employees told police they could not release personal identifying information.

A man approached a short time later, stating he was the uncle of the child. However, the officer learned he was the boyfriend of the child’s mother, not the uncle. The man, Michael Coleman, said the child had been left in the care of his sister. When asked where the suspect sister was, he claimed he had no idea.

The mother was contacted and became very upset, telling police she had been unable to contact the suspect/sister by phone while she had been at work.

The suspect, a 26-year-old female, was not identified in the report but she could face a felony charge of first degree endangering the welfare of a minor.

The officer completed a walk-thru of the child’s residence at the 100-block of Daybreak Drive and said there was nothing which would cause alarm, indicating the infant lived in acceptable conditions. The report indicated the child was released back to family members but did not specify who.

A copy of the report was forwarded to the Arkansas State Police Crimes Against Children Division.


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