Mother arrested for leaving child home alone

A mother of four faces felony charges after she left her 4-year-old daughter home alone while she took her other children to school.

The defendant, Rhonda M. Garretson, is charged with child neglect, a crime which carries two to four years in prison. She is free on bond awaiting arraignment Wednesday before Circuit Court Judge Bart Stanley.

Garretson was indicted recently for the incident which occurred in October at her home in Hickory Creek Estates, located next to Warren County High School.

According to investigators, Garretson left her 4-year-old daughter inside her locked home while she drove her other children to school. The child was reportedly asleep when Garretson left. However, shortly after the mother departed, the child awoke and reportedly became frightened realizing she was home alone.

At that point, the child was able to let herself out of the house and made her way through a heavy-morning fog toward the high school. The child was obstructed by a large fence which surrounding the school, a fence the child was trying to scale when she was found by high school students.

“I heard a little girl crying and I didn’t know where it was coming from,” recalled student Amanda Barnes, who noted the child was wearing only a T-shirt when she found her. “When I saw her, she was on the fence trying to get over. She told us she was trying to get to the high school to reach her brother because she couldn’t find her mama. All I thought about was my niece and nephew. That could have been either one of them.”

The mother, who was reportedly in tears and apologetic when confronted by lawmen who came to return her daughter, now has custody of only her oldest son. The remaining children, including the victim, are in the custody of their fathers.