Friday, February 15, 2013

Sheriff’s deputies in Harnado County, Fla., have arrested a caretaker on neglect charges after finding a 10-year-old boy wandering the street naked and drunk.

Amanda Roesch is a mom. And Thursday night, a 10-year-old neighbor needed her mom skills.

“I'm like, ‘come in the house baby and I went and got some of my son's clothes.’” She said.

Two neighbors walking their dog came across the boy wandering the neighborhood without a stitch of clothing and in a state no child should ever experience.

“They had come across him, you know, going up and down, naked, completely
naked,” Roesch said. No underwear, no socks, nothing. He was so intoxicated that he didn't realize he had no clothes on.”

His caretaker, Nedra Byrd, was intoxicated, too. She was passed out in her home across the street.

“The juvenile said that the caregiver provided the brandy,” said Denise Maloney with the sheriff’s office.

When deputies arrived, they found a half-empty bottle of brandy sitting on her counter and took the fourth-grader to the hospital.

“They went ahead and did a blood alcohol, which came out to .108,” Maloney said, “which an adult would be considered impaired driving at .08.”

Roesch is still shaken up from Thursday night. Most moms would be.

“How do you not know your child is missing and drunk--drunk and missing, wandering down a dark road in the cold? I just don't understand,” she said.