Mother arrested after 3-year-old found at river’s edge
The chief of the East Bethlehem Township police department is crediting a Millsboro woman for averting tragedy after she spotted a 3-year-old boy along the edge of the Monongahela River Thursday morning.
Police Chief Mark Pompe said Alyssia Johnson happened to look out the door of her home on Mill Street and spot the boy. He was wearing a sleep shirt and a diaper. Pompe said the boy lives several blocks from the river and may have been following his dog which went over the river bank.
Denene Morris, 43, of Millsboro, was charged with endangering the welfare of children and resisting arrest.
“I have to give (Johnson) all the credit in the world,” Pompe said Thursday afternoon. “He could have easily fallen into the river, and the current is strong. We would’ve been calling out the fire department to search the river.”
Morris told Pompe someone was supposed to watch the boy while she went to the store in Marianna, but the unidentified man denied her claim.
Johnson spotted the boy about 10 a.m. She went door-to-door at several homes in the neighborhood looking for the boy’s caretaker before notifying police about an hour later. Pompe said Johnson also fed the boy and changed his diaper.
After Morris arrived home, Pompe asked her if the boy was her child. She reportedly exchanged words with the chief before he took her into custody.
The boy was checked by emergency medical personnel and then turned over to a Washington County Children and Youth Services caseworker. If a suitable family member is not found to take care of the boy, he will remain in custody of CYS.
Morris was arraigned before District Judge Curtis Thompson and placed in the Washington County jail on a $20,000 percentage bond. A preliminary hearing is tentatively set for Thursday before District Judge Joshua Kanalis.