Kingsport police have completed their two week search for a possibly endangered child and his mother — finding both unharmed — while a series of incomplete and inaccurate communications are cited for sparking the investigation.
No charges are expected to be placed in the incident, which prompted an alert to the public seeking information. KPD Det. Martin Taylor says police located the woman Friday, living at a residence with no access to the multiple media reports seeking her whereabouts, while her child is now identified as a 17-year-old male.
On Dec. 19 Kingsport police received several 911 reports of a female looking for her child "lying beside" Lynn Garden Drive. The first came from a pedestrian who reported being stopped by a "hysterical" female driver of a Honda Accord. Soon dispatch was contacted by the mother, who asked if EMS had transported a boy to the hospital.
An officer called the phone back and spoke with a female believed to have made the call. During this brief conversation she allegedly stated a neighbor had asked her to contact central dispatch the first time. Police report she then said she was going to the Hog Wild Saloon and abruptly disconnected the call.
Officers responded to the bar but did not find the caller. The next day, as investigators we're attempting to determine if a child was indeed harmed or endangered, an alert was sent to the media providing a description of her and her car.
Over the following week police attempted tracking the cell phone, pinpointing it to the Lynn Garden area and learning it was a TracFone with no subscriber information. Multiple calls to the phone also proved unsuccessful in gathering additional information.
On Friday Det. Taylor located the woman — who had no idea she was sought by authorities. She reportedly stated the incident began after she received a call from a family friend, stating her son was having a seizure near the old Fairway Ford dealership on Lynn Garden Drive.
That reportedly prompted her response to the area and questioning of pedestrians about a "child lying beside the roadway." After observing an ambulance she dialed 911 to see if her son was possibly being transported. Det. Taylor says that the woman soon located her son — who had recovered from a "medical issue" — and didn't call authorities to alert them.
The phone she used to dial 911, providing the number police attempted to track and call multiple times, belonged to her son. Det. Taylor says acquaintances of the juvenile are the ones who answered police queries the night of the incident, offering the nonchalant response that they were headed to Hog Wild.
No charges will be placed in the incident.