WE$T TERRE HAUTE —
A West Terre Haute man could be charged with child neglect after his toddler daughter was found Sunday wandering two blocks from home wearing dirty clothes and hungry.
Jeffrey Thomas, 38, must appear in Vigo Superior Court 6 on Thursday, according to an order issued Monday by Judge Michael Lewis.
Detective William Bark of the West Terre Haute Police Department testified that at about 10 a.m. Sunday, police were called to the 300 block of West Lee Avenue after a small child was found playing with a cat by a homeowner. The homeowner tried to find where the child came from by going door-to-door, but could not locate her home. The homeowner took the child home and fed her water and cookies while waiting on police to arrive.
An officer reported that the child — later determined to be less than 3 years old — was wearing a dirty white T-shirt and pink underpants that were on backward. Bark said the child told police that her parents were home sleeping, but the child could not say her own name.
While police were at the residence, Bark said, a red van pulled up and a man and woman jumped out with the woman carrying an unrestrained 1-year-old child in her arms.
Both the man, Jeffrey Thomas, and the woman yelled at the 3-year-old child about leaving home, and the child was roughly placed in a car seat, Bark said.
The 1-year-old child was just as dirty as the wandering toddler, Bark said, and both children had dirt caked under their fingernails and toenails.
Thomas and the woman yelled and cursed at police, Bark said, and Thomas backed up the van in an unsafe manner and sped from the scene.
An officer followed them to their home two blocks away, where the officer asked Thomas to produce an identification card. Police found that Thomas was driving while suspended, so he was arrested and taken to the Vigo County Jail on that misdemeanor charge.
Deputy Prosecutor Raeanna Moore told the judge that Thomas was released on his own recognizance from the jail because the child neglect charge was not in the jail charges. She said the class-D felony neglect charge and a class-A misdemeanor charge of driving while suspended would be filed by Thursday.
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