This story is told from the perspective of the Good Samaritan that found these children.
Which is lovely, but certain facts get buried. And a lot of the back story is totally omitted.
Buried in all this: That the mother of these kids had dropped these kids off on Christmas for visitation with their meth head daddy. He was apparently so f***ed up that he had no clue that the kids were out wandering in subzero temperatures, hoping to find their way back to Mom's house. Neither of the kids had coats, and it appears that 4-year-old had filthy diapers.
Notice that Mom is being punished for the father's actions by having her kids taken away by CPS, and the authorities are investigating her "whereabouts" on the day the kids were found wandering. As if that was even relevant.
Not mentioned at all: Was Mom REQUIRED to drop these kids off as part of a court-ordered visitation agreement? Notice that the question isn't even raised. If she was receiving child support, it is extremely likely that this POS of a father was granted his visitation "rights." Especially in Indiana, which is a strong fathers rights state. If she did not comply, the reality is that she would likely face jail and/or lose custody. Yet she is going to be crucified anyway for "failing" to protect them. Can't win for losing....
http://articles.southbendtribune.com/2012-12-28/news/36043014_1_christmas-day-granger-sunwood-drive
Father jailed after kids found walking the street on freezing Christmas Day
December 28, 2012|By JEFF HARRELL | South Bend Tribune
The Granger mom couldn't believe her eyes.
Driving along County Line Road headed to her parents' home Christmas Day with her own two daughters in tow, the mother passed two small children walking on the shoulder dangerously close to the icy roadway.
The little girl was 6. The 4-year-old boy appeared small for his age. Both wandered helplessly susceptible to the below-freezing elements as cars whizzed past.
"It was very cold," says the woman, whose name is being withheld from this story.
"They didn't have any coats on. They just had a jacket, like a sweatshirt type of thing. And the little boy wasn't even wearing his jacket. It looked like she just threw it over him ... a sweatshirt type thing, real thin."
The mom turned the car around and headed back to the two tykes. Stopped on the side of the road, she pulled both children into her car and asked what they were doing.
Both kids were hungry, she says. The little girl was "upset," yet "motherly" toward her younger brother.
"
She said they had bran flakes and macaroni and cheese that day. I thought that was sad because it was Christmas."
The little boy wore diapers that were heavily soiled. "It was so smelly and bad, it looked like it hadn't been changed all day," she said, adding that by this time she had called 911 while two other motorists also stopped to help.
With tears running down her cheeks as the woman cradled her head inside the warm car, the little girl gave an address and proceeded to say how she and her little brother wound up wandering in the freezing cold on a busy road.
"They said they were walking to their mother's house. I asked, 'Where's your dad?' and (the little girl) said her dad wouldn't wake up, that she couldn't wake him up."
"Dad" is Kevin Lee Upham, 29, of Granger. When Elkhart County Sheriff's deputies tracked him down at his Sunwood Drive home, they found Upham to be "three sheets to the wind."
An Elkhart County Sheriff's spokesman indicated that Upham was "doing meth" when the kids' mother dropped them off for Christmas.
Upham was arrested Christmas Day and formally charged Dec. 26 with felony counts of neglect of a dependent and possession of meth, and a misdemeanor count of possession of paraphernalia.
Currently being held at Elkhart County Jail on $10,000 bond, Upham is due to appear in Elkhart County Superior Court Jan. 4.
The kids' mother, Heather Poe, 25, was booked and released after being arrested Dec. 4 on an unrelated criminal warrant. She was not arrested in connection with her childrens' situation Christmas Day, but a spokesman for the Elkhart County Sheriff's Department said the Department of Children's Services is working with the Elkhart County Prosecutor's Office to investigate Poe's whereabouts when her kids were found.
Both kids were turned over to the Department of Child Services (DCS), but not before the Granger mom's two daughters made Christmas Day a little easier on the wandering toddlers.
The woman's 6-year-old daughter said the lost girl had been a kindergarten classmate. Both continue to go to the same school, but are in different first-grade classrooms now, she added.
So, with Christmas gifts still sitting in the car in unopened packages, mom's girls handed their little friend a box.
"I gave her a Barbie doll," the 6-year-old daughter said.
"I'm very proud of both of them," the mother said of her kids. "They gave some of their presents to the girl. They felt bad for her."
The gift cast a smile over the little girl's tears.
"She was very happy," the mom said. "I don't know what she got for Christmas, or how her Christmas was, but she was happy. She held on to that Barbie doll."
Her little brother "... couldn't care less," the mom said. "He wasn't all that upset, but the girl was. She was just..."
The mother's voice trailed off. She admitted the sight of two little lost kids walking in the cold on Christmas Day is still etched in her mind.
"That's what made me mad, because parents should be there to comfort their kids, instead of being the ones to cause the problem."
It's why she pulled over to help the two toddlers.
"I would hope anyone would do that," she said. "Those are defenseless babies."