Candidate for mother of the year
3 year old found playing in the freeway
Stunned motorists found a 3-year-old boy, barefoot and wearing only a diaper and T-shirt, playing along a busy highway after he wandered away from an apartment while his mother slept, police said.
Drivers who spotted Damon Dyer on Interstate 465 on Indianapolis’ west side Saturday morning pulled over and took care of him until officers arrived, Indiana State Police said.
“I looked up and I seen this little two year old boy running down the middle of the slow lane in the interstate. I just could not believe what I was seeing,” said Troy Crady, one of the motorists who stopped to help.
Damon Dyer survived his highway romp unscathed, but for a few tense moments, at least a half-dozen cars and a big rig swerved into other lanes to avoid the child.
Police traced the toddler to a nearby apartment complex, where they found his mother, Nancy Dyer, 33, asleep in a filthy apartment dirtied by human waste and trash. The boy’s 2-year-old sister was found eating spaghetti off the floor, police reports said.
Dyer, who was arrested on two counts of child neglect, was being held Sunday at the Marion County Jail.
Senior State Trooper Cedric Merritt said Dyer said, “Oh, he got out again,” after being told about her son’s potentially deadly walk onto the highway.
“Mom seemed like she didn’t care at all, like it was like a nonchalant thing,” he said.
Investigators said the boy went out of a second-story apartment at Scarborough Lake Apartments about 9 a.m. Saturday, down the stairs and around a fence to the interstate about 200 yards away.
Child Protective Services, who took the boy and his sister into custody, had been called to the apartment Thursday after the boy was found outside unsupervised, investigators said.
Dyer told police that she had recently moved to Indiana from Florida and said the reason for the mess was because she had not finished unpacking. The children’s father is believed to still live in Florida
Filed under: Children's Issues
So sad. I was listening to a police expert the other day talking about worriyng trends in violent crime. They said the current indicators are exactly like those that have happened before that preceded major violent crime waves, except the indicators are worse this time.
He sounded very worried that we are about to enter a very bad period of time for very violent crime here in the USA. When you look at stories like this, you know why. Kids who grow up like this have nothing to loose, and will not hesitate to kill others to get what they want and need.
AstaghfirAllah. Child neglect is horrifying.
Unfortunately, here in the middle east it is commonplace, and in Jordan we do not have the same protective services or children’s rights agencies that are in place in the US. It is totally normal to see 2 and 3-year old children alone, unsupervised, even sent running errands. Many times I have witnessed a five year old in charge of his siblings, walking with toddlers along busy streets, even being sent to buy cigarettes. I even heard a mother say that she leaves her four children alone so that they can “learn to fend for themselves.”
I’m not saying this is the norm, but many parents do it, and often with heartbreaking consequences, especially in the winter time when gas/kerosene heaters are in use and children are left unattended.
The difference is, most of these Muslim kids will not grow up to be gang-bangers…they’ll just neglect their own kids in the same way their parents did, perpetuating a great social ill.
gives a sad new meaning to “why don’t you go play in traffic”
Child neglect in the middle east is mainly caused by poverty unlike the USA.
Leila,
I wish that poverty was the only reason for child neglect in the M East. I know plenty of affluent parents who leave their kids to raise themselves, while they go out doing their own “thing,” smoking the arguila till 2 a.m. or whatever…it’s sad, but a reality. Either that, or the maids are raising the children.
While in the poorer areas (like where my husband was raised), the people tend to be more religious and more dedicated to giving their kids a “way out” and are more supportive of their education, the girls are not out in the malls and in the streets alone, etc.
At least this is the way I’ve observed things in Jordan. Perhaps the Gulf is different.
That is so sad. We had a case just like this here last month. The two kids 1 and 2 were naked walking down a major street. And the they found two other kids in an apartment in the same condition. I imagine these women are drug addicts, I heard that people on meth crash for days sleeping so these kids probably were fending for themselves a while. So sad.
Salaam alaikum,
When I worked as a public health educator, I saw crap like this a lot. I remember one house. There must have been at least 9 teenagers growing up there and the place was caked in filth. My trainer also threw up at the sight of the filth. I mean dirty diapers on the record player, the bed mattress was black with…whatever, the place was crawling with cockroaches. It’s just ridiculous. I’ll stop here because I could go on all day about this.
And which award should the father get?
And which award should the father get?
Unfortunately, if the pattern fits, the Father is already in jail and likely has been since the child was conceived
This story is very disturbing. I know an older sister who lost her son many years ago when she decided to leave him at home while he slept to pick up another child from school. The boy awoke and wandered out into the street and was hit by a car and killed. That was a very tragic accident and it was due to an error in judgment rather than neglect because I believe she was a good mother. This particular mother should be very thankful that her son is still alive. It appears from her nonchalant attitude that this lady had to be on drugs. I just read a story the other day where a 6 month old baby’s toes were gnawed off by a family pet while the parents slept!!! http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/16312314/ I think Umm Abdullah is correct in that these parents are so drugged up they just sleep all day and are unaware of their surroundings thereby putting their children’s well-being in danger.
I have to agree with Abu Sinan that these kids who are born and raised by these types of parents or in these types of environments will grow up to be problem adults perpetuating the vicious cycle of violence, teen pregnancy, drug/alcohol abuse, etc.
Your headline does not indicate that, and can you tell us if the condition of the mother is less worse than in a jail?
But should we be surprised what we see here? This has been an ongoing process at least since the civil rights movement, where every social aspect you can think of went down hill for African Americans. We are in a situation today where more black men are behind bars than enrolled in colleges or universities, and on any given day,30 percent of African-American males ages 20 to 29 were under correctional supervision—either in jail or prison or on probation or parole. (Read more here: http://realcostofprisons.org/blog/ )
It takes a mother and a father to raise a child (society).
Hey Gess, where’d you read that they were African-Americans? If you didn’t read that anywhere, then it’s funny that you made that connection based on the behavior here
Just a note
My last post was not meant to mock African Americans, but as a wake up call.
Salaam
Ed,
If the mother is not an African American or not, would that change the situation on African Americans?
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