MADISON, W.Va. — A Boone County man and woman face charges after a three year old baby wandered out of the family’s home in Madison around 3 a.m. Wednesday.
“Evidently the parents were asleep and the child got up and was able to exit the house and wandered off. She was found two and a half blocks from the house with nothing on but a diaper,” said Madison Police Chief Chet Burgess. “There was a gentleman coming home from work and he almost hit her. He was the one that called.”
The child was taken to Boone Memorial Hospital for evaluation. Burgess said she had scratches and was extremely cold. The temperature was 39 degrees. The child was reportedly suffering from an ear infection and lung infection.
“She should have probably been taken to the doctor a lot sooner,” Burgess said.
Stephen Brian Ball, 36, and Norrieca Ann Bryant, 25, of Madison were arrested. Burgess said the child couldn’t tell them where she had come from, but after a similar incident six weeks ago, he had a pretty good idea where to start looking.
“About six weeks ago I had a call to go to that house for the same thing. The child wasn’t wandering around in the road, but it was outside in a diaper in cold weather,” Burgess said. “I told him on a hunch to stop by and check at that residence and that’s where it was at.”
Madison Police called Child Protective Services to the scene. They placed the young girl who was on the street and a second child in the home with grandparents and the parents were taken to jail.
Court document reveal Bryant and Ball admitted to police they smoked pot and took muscle relaxers and were unaware the baby had wandered out of the house. Police also observed the home was in squalor with cock roaches and gnats. The child’s diaper had not been changed for an extended period of time.
The pair was arraigned in Boone County Magistrate Court on charges of child abuse creating risk of injury. They remain jailed on $50,000 bond today in the Southern Regional Jail.