Autistic 5-Year-Old Found Wandering Alone At Night After Mom Abandoned Him Miles Away From Home

A 5-year-old autistic nonverbal boy has been found wandering alone in a street in Ohio, and the police have arrested the child's mother from Indiana, who has admitted to abandoning her son 75 miles away from her home.

Heather Nicole Adkins, 32, from Shelbyville, Indiana, has been accused of driving her child to Cincinnati in Ohio, where he was later found walking alone in Colerain Township while the temperature was freezing.

Adkins was arrested Saturday from a gas station in Georgetown, Kentucky, about 85 miles away from where she allegedly left her child, on charges of unpaid fine dating back to 2011. The police soon identified Adkins as the suspect who abandoned the child in Ohio and charged her with child endangerment.

The Colerain Township police responded to a 911 report from a driver who noticed the child walking alone in the street in the middle of the night.

"It's a two-lane road, super dark, no lights, very windy, and it was also freezing. He was just on the side of the road. He was waving me down. Luckily I was close so that I could call the police," Josh Wanderski, a driver of a passing vehicle who reported the matter to the police, said. The child looked dazed and was scary to see him walking along a road with no sidewalks, Wanderski added, as reported by The Enquirer.

During interrogation, Adkins shifted her stories several times but eventually admitted that she left her child alone. "I meant to leave him there with Patty...No I left him there with Brad, didn’t I?" Adkins said when asked if she left her child with someone.

However, when the detectives pointed out that she was giving contradicting responses, she said: "No, I didn’t leave him with anyone," WKYT reported.

Meanwhile, the child remains in the custody of Hamilton County Jobs and Family Services. "These types of cases simply break your heart. All children should grow up loved and wanted. I hope the child ultimately lands in a caring, loving home," Hamilton County Prosecutor Joe Deters said, as reported by WYMT.