Inset: Maria Guadalupe Almanza Rivera (Cobb County Jail). Background: The area of Franklin Gateway and Twin Brooks Drive in Marietta, Ga., where a toddler was found walking alone (Google Maps).
A toddler wandered out of his Georgia home and was walking the streets alone before he was rescued by two women who spotted him — and it took his caregiver 30 minutes before she realized he was missing, cops say.
Maria Guadalupe Almanza Rivera, 29, is facing charges of second-degree child cruelty and reckless conduct, jail records say.
The investigation began around 5:45 p.m. Monday when the 3-year-old boy was seen wandering near Franklin Gateway and Twin Brooks Drive in Marietta, Georgia. Cops told the Marietta Daily Journal that two women were driving in the area and saw the boy.
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They picked him up and took him to a nearby gas station, where they then called the cops. The boy could not identify himself or say where he came from, so police posted his picture on the agency’s Facebook page, asking the public to help.
Eventually, the boy’s family came and picked him up around 7:30 p.m.
Warrants obtained by local NBC affiliate WXIA said Almanza Rivera did not realize the boy was missing for 30 minutes. The suspect is identified only as the boy’s caregiver.
The warrants also reportedly say that Almanza Rivera waited until 7:30 p.m. — roughly two hours after he went missing — to alert family members that she couldn’t find the boy and asked them for help looking for him.
Almanza Rivera allegedly texted a family member and asked them to tell cops that she was in the bathroom when the boy wandered off.
She was taken to the Cobb County Jail, where she is being held without bond. Her next court date was not immediately listed.
Officer Chuck McPhilamy credited the two women who initially found the boy for taking him to safety and calling cops.
“They were fantastic,” McPhilamy told the Journal. “They stayed the whole time until we were able to locate the family.”
The post Toddler wandered out of home and it took caregiver 30 minutes before she realized he was missing: Cops first appeared on Law & Crime.
