According to court records, the child's mother, Jeri Sandefur, 26, of Sallisaw was charged Aug. 15 with child neglect.
The charge stems from an incident on June 18 when Sallisaw Police Cpl. Jeff Murray was dispatched to the 800 block of East Chickasaw Place at 9:26 a.m. in reference to a small child who was walking around a neighborhood without adult supervision. Murray was flagged down and told the child was on the front porch of the home.
Murray spoke to the toddler and learned the child's name, but the child could not tell police what his last name was, where he lived, or his parents' names. Murray reported that the child was only wearing a toddler pull-up diaper. He spoke with neighbors in the area, who said they did not know the child.
The child was taken to the police department and while there, a special victims unit officer recognized the child due to previous dealings with Sandefur.
The Department of Human Services child welfare division later spoke with Sandefur, who said the previous night she and the child went to bed. Sandefur said she did not know what time the child got out of bed on June 18. She reported that her father was home, but he was out of the home with Sandefur's brother. Sandefur allegedly said after she was notified that the child was at the department, her father returned home and she asked him why he didn't wake her up. He said that he told the child to wake her up. When asked if safety latches were installed on doors in the home to prevent the child from getting out of the house, Sandefur said there weren't latches.
Murray spoke to the woman who reported the child in the neighborhood. She said it was at about 9 a.m. and she was inside her home when she looked out the window and saw a little boy in her front yard. It was raining hard at the time, the woman reported. She said she walked to the front door and opened the door and tried to get the boy out of the rain. She asked the boy where his parents were and the boy replied he was looking for his puppy. She asked him again to come up on the porch or in the house and the boy refused. The woman called police, and the child crossed the street and went to another house.
