An 18-year-old mother has been arrested after her 2-year-old son was found wandering outside her Alabama home while clutching a suicide note written by his mother.
A frantic search for the boy’s mother Saturday ended in woods near the family’s home where Katie Renea Halbert was arrested for child endangerment, according to the Etowah County Sheriff’s Office.
The sheriff’s department told WBCRC that Halbert went missing sometime on Saturday and was possibly in an “altered state of mind.”
Authorities said it was a family member who found her son outside her Ivalee home and in a panic called 911.
Halbert was located several hours later unharmed.
Child endangerment is a misdemeanor offense but Etowah County Sheriff Todd Entrekin is hoping lawmakers will make it a felony.
“We’ve got to address this problem. Again, several cases this year in Etowah County, where someone should’ve been charged with a felony, other than just a misdemeanor dealing with a child’s safety,” Entrekin told WBRC.
Halbert’s child was placed in the custody of the county Department of Human Resources.
She was being held Saturday on $1,000 property bond.
