THE NEWS DESK
The News Desk is a collection of news, notes and breaking items affecting the Fredericksburg community.
Mom arrested when three small children found alone outside
BY KEITH EPPS
A Stafford County woman was arrested Friday after being accused of leaving her three small children alone for more than two hours, police said.
Sheriff’s spokesman Bill Kennedy said the children had apparently been left inside a home on Babcock Road in Sky Terrace in North Stafford, but were wandering around outside in the heat when a neighbor noticed them about 4:45 p.m. The neighbor notified a maintenance worker, who called the Sheriff’s Office.
The children—a 6 year-old boy, a 3-year-old girl and a 1-year-old boy—told the worker they were “hot and hungry” and their mother was at work, Kennedy said.
Deputy Bradley Cook responded to the townhouse complex. He spoke to one of the children, who told the deputy that he was hot and wanted to go to the pool. Cook tried unsuccessfully for about an hour to contact the mother. He finally left a note and his card on the door and turned the children over to Child Protective Services.
Social workers also couldn’t find the mother, so the children were placed in the temporary custody of a foster family. About 8 p.m., Kennedy said, the mother called the Sheriff’s Office looking for her children.
Cook returned to the residence, but the mother was gone again. She returned at the request of a dispatcher and talked to the deputy. Kennedy said she told the deputy that the children were supposed to be in the care of a neighbor. But she acknowledged that she hadn’t seen the neighbor when she left earlier that day.
Tanisha Scott, 29, was charged with felony child neglect and placed in the Rappahannock Regional Jail.
Keith Epps: 540/374-5404
kepps@freelancestar.com
