This week, a truck driver in Louisiana discovered a 1-year-old child alive in a ditch off an interstate highway. The boy’s 4-year-old brother was discovered dead close to the same freeway, and authorities believe the boy was abandoned around the time tropical storm conditions arrived.
Authorities announced on Thursday that the mother of the boys, who lives in Louisiana, has been detained in Mississippi and is being charged with murder as well as other offenses after allegedly leaving the kids behind.
The truck driver is being praised by a Louisiana sheriff for seeing the 1-year-old and stopping to pick him up on Tuesday. The sheriff believes the child spent two days along Interstate 10, including during Hurricane Beryl or one of its weaker versions that battered the western Gulf Coast region with rain and strong wind.
“We consider this one-year-old as our miracle child since he is still alive,” Stitch Guillory, the sheriff for Calcasieu Parish, stated this past week. “This child was left out in the elements on the side of the road for two days. Thank heavens the truck driver saw him.
The 4-year-old boy’s body was discovered floating in the water behind a rest area along I-10 in Calcasieu Parish, western Louisiana, just beyond the Texas state border, on Monday afternoon, according to the sheriff’s office, sparking an inquiry. The reason for death was not disclosed right away.
On that day, Beryl hit Texas before weakening into a tropical storm and tropical depression as it moved across Louisiana, bringing rain and wind gusts as high as 60 mph to the parish, according to CNN meteorologists.
Eventually, investigators discovered that the 4-year-old had been last seen on Saturday with his mother, Lake Charles resident Aaliyah Jack, 25, and his younger brother, 1, according to the sheriff’s office. After that, officials in Meridian, Mississippi, discovered Jack alone with the 1-year-old, and they first detained her there on suspicion of neglecting to report a missing child.
According to investigators, the one-year-old reappeared alive on Tuesday morning along I-10 in Louisiana.
“That appears to be a baby.”
Driving on I-10, truck driver Reginald Walton told CNN affiliate KADN that he observed something “to the right, over in the… embankment” and surmised it was a doll that someone had thrown out of a car.
But Walton, of Texas, told KADN, “I saw it move as I was passing by, and I said, ‘Hey, that looks like a baby.'”
Walton claimed it took him around a quarter of a mile to stop the truck at a speed of 60 to 75 mph. He told KADN he stopped the truck, dialed 911, and rushed back.
It turned out that a young child was sitting down on the embankment. Walton added, “He grinned at me as I walked up to him, then got up, started crying, and came toward me.
According to the sheriff’s office, the 1-year-old was discovered close to mile marker 10, which is roughly 9 miles from the rest area where his brother was discovered dead the day before.
The youngster was recognized by deputies as Jack’s one-year-old son. According to Calcasieu Parish Sheriff’s Office spokesman Kayla Vincent, he was transferred to a hospital and then released to the state Department of Children and Family Services.
Jack, who is currently being held in Mississippi, was charged in Louisiana on Thursday with two counts of failing to report a missing kid, second-degree murder, and cruelty to a minor, according to the sheriff’s office.
We don’t know if she has a lawyer.
Despite Guillory’s statement that he thought the 1-year-old was out on I-10 for two days—which would have included Monday—the sheriff’s office has not disclosed if detectives have an exact timeline for when the siblings were abandoned.
Walton, however, admitted to KADN that he didn’t consider himself a hero.
He told KADN, “I just feel like it was God’s will for me to be in the right place at the right time.”
Aaliyah Jack’s mother Conswella Jack, who is also the children’s grandmother, told CNN that she last saw the children on Saturday at her mother’s funeral. Her daughter then picked them up. Conswella Jack stated that she and her daughter had a deal whereby Aaliyah Jack was allowed to see the two boys whenever she pleased, but the grandmother would normally look after the boys.
Conswella According to her, Jack was notified by phone on Tuesday of her 4-year-old grandson’s passing by his paternal grandmother. A detective called her shortly after to confirm the deceased. She told CNN that she had no idea what caused the boy’s death or how her 1-year-old grandson ended up by the side of the road.
“I have no idea how something similar happened. “I just want my grandbaby back at this moment,” the grandmother remarked.
When she learned of the news, Conswella was residing in Houston; she has since moved to Lake Charles, she claimed. According to her, she has been contacting Child Protective Services every day to get updates on her grandson who is still alive.
“I’m not sure what to believe. “I discovered this after burying my mother on Saturday,” Conswella Jack remarked.
mom’s 4-year-old grandson was referred to as “an awesome kid” by mom.
“I apologize, sweetheart. that you have vanished. I apologize,” she stated.
The grandmother expressed her wish to soon be reunited with her surviving grandchild on Thursday, saying that she still had not spoken with her daughter to find out what transpired.
