Family Discovers Mistake: Toddler Missing For 2 Days
MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) -- It was around 4 p.m. Wednesday when Bobbi McGee couldn't believe what she was watching. On the 700 block of Thomas Avenue North she was witnessing an 18-month-old boy walking down the sidewalk, no parents around and no siblings watching over him.
"Here you have a little baby who can't talk and we're saying, isn't he cute as a button? And he was dressed really very nicely," McGee said.
McGee called police and waited close to an hour for officers to arrive. When they did, police took the toddler into protective custody after being unable to locate the parents.
For nearly two days, nobody called in to report a child missing. So on Friday afternoon, Minneapolis Police released a poster with the child's photograph to the media, hoping to generate information.
Meanwhile as neighbors learned of the lost child, many were quick to voice both shock and sadness.
"That's a shame. I couldn't imagine, couldn't imagine how the baby feels and how the parents feel. Nobody claimed him in two days? That's heartbreaking," said Nita Parks.
Then by late Friday afternoon a nearby family became frantic as they discovered their mistake. The toddler, Jamarious Grey, would spend time shuffling between an aunt's home two blocks away and his mother and grandmothers on Thomas Avenue North.
One of his Aunts, Jamesa Montgomery, stood outside her home after learning the boy had spent the past two days in protective custody. She struggled to explain the terrible mistake and breakdown in communication. Montgomery left him Wednesday morning to go to work in the care of an 11-year-old nephew. She thought the boy was to be taken to his mother's home later that day.
"This is shocking. For two days we thought he was actually around at the other sister's house and she said he went here, so this is shocking. I know my sister, who we just called, is in a terrible tragic moment," Montgomery said.
Soon after discovering the family's mistake, Police arrived at the home to begin an inquiry into the matter. Investigators will want to know how an innocent toddler could go missing without any family members knowing.
