A Louisiana woman is facing criminal charges after police said she tried to abandon her 8-year-old son three times in one day, including at a cemetery and then at a farm.
Officers with the Ponchatoula Police Department began investigating the repeated abandonment on Sunday, March 1, when they were called about a boy left alone at a laundromat in the city, the department said in a Tuesday, March 3 news release.
That afternoon, a local resident saw Jeanette Edmonds drop off her 8-year-old at the laundromat before driving off in her car, according to police.
Ponchatoula police temporarily took the boy into their care as officers started to look for Edmonds, 43, police said.
While investigating, detectives learned that earlier in the day, Edmonds first tried to leave her son at a cemetery before trying to abandon him at a farm that was not too far from the cemetery site, according to police.
Edmonds was tracked down to Harvey, which is located in the New Orleans metropolitan area, police said. Harvey is about a 55-mile drive southeast from Ponchatoula.
Edmonds, of Tickfaw, was arrested on charges of cruelty to juveniles, child desertion and criminal abandonment, police said.
It was not currently clear whether Edmonds had retained legal representation or entered a plea as of the afternoon of Thursday, March 5.
Ponchatoula Police Chief Bry Layrisson told Louisiana Radio Network that Edmonds “never acknowledged any reason for why she abandoned the child, and at no time did she ask the detectives if her son was okay.”
After police responded to the laundromat, Layrisson said that his father began the more than four-hour drive from Ruston, located in Northern Louisiana, to retrieve him, according to the radio network.
While his father was on the way, Layrisson told Louisiana Radio Network that “We had him here for quite some time, so we went and got him some McDonald’s and put on some cartoons for him.”
Edmonds was booked in the Tangipahoa Parish Jail on Monday, March 2, records viewed by Luxury Handbag Shopping show. Her bond has been set at $55,000.
Records did not immediately indicate when she was due to appear in court.
If a person is convicted of cruelty to juveniles in Louisiana, they could face up to 10 years in prison, with or without hard labor, depending on the victim’s age, according to state law. A defendant could face up to 20 years in prison if the victim is 8 years old, like Edmonds’ son, or younger.
