How Could You? Hall of Shame-Michigan Foster Mother

This will be an archive of heinous actions by those involved in child welfare, foster care and adoption. We forewarn you that these are deeply disturbing stories that may involve sex abuse, murder, kidnapping and other horrendous actions.

From Lansing. Michigan, CPS is investigating a foster mother after she failed to realize that her autistic 6-year-old foster son had wandered out of the house.

“It was around 6:30 a.m. a worker at Precision Driveshaft Service at the corner of Genesee St. and N. Rosemary St. in Lansing Township had just gone to the bathroom. When he returned, he found a 6 year old boy, wearing nothing more than a pull-up diaper, standing barefoot in his workshop.

The worker, who would only give his name as Bob, tried to talk to the child, but the boy wouldn’t talk back. Instead, he wandered around the workshop before wandering out into the street. That’s when Bob called police.

“When our officers responded, they found him on N. Rosemary just north of W. Michigan Avenue,” said Kay Hoffman, chief of police in Lansing Township. “At that time they were able to make contact with that child.”

But contact was difficult. The boy has autism, according to his foster parent, and that made it challenging to get him into an ambulance, Hoffman said. She called him “frightened” and “combative.”

“This was a little unique situation because this child was six years old. In normal circumstances a child would have been able to communicate to the officers or to the neighbor that they needed some help or were hungry or whatever the case may be,” Hoffman said.

Hoffman said the child had walked out the front door of his foster home on the 400 block of N. Catherine St. before his family woke up. The child’s foster mother didn’t call police until 9:45 a.m., Hoffman said.

The boy was taken to the St. Lawrence campus at Sparrow Hospital, where police say he is unharmed.

The police have turned over the investigation to Child Protective Services. Hoffman says at this point it doesn’t appear charges will be brought, but that could change pending the CPS investigation.”

Worker Finds Wandering Child, Police Called

[Fox 47 7/12/13]

“According to police, the woman had been sleeping until 9 a.m. When she awoke, other children told her that when they woke up, the front door to the home was open. She contacted police at 9:45 a.m.”

UPDATE: Police Find Wandering Child’s Foster Mother

[WILX 10 7/11/13]

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