Arrest Update: Barefoot boy found walking on a country road leads to investigation then warrant for the mother’s arrest

Bailey Dee Ann Douglass, aka Bailey Douglas, 30, Newberry, was arrested on a warrant and booked in to the Greene County Jail on Monday, August 27. The warrant was issued on a preliminary charge of neglect of a dependent, a Level 6 felony.

Bailey Douglass

Her bond was set at $4,000 surety with ten percent cash allowed. She posted $400 cash and was released later the same day.

She is now scheduled to appear in Greene Superior Court for an initial hearing on September 10.

For more information, see earlier story posted below.

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Story posted earlier:

Barefoot boy found walking on a country road leads to investigation then warrant for the mother’s arrest

After an eight-year-old child was found walking along a country road, barefoot in his pajamas, a mile away from his home, a Greene County Sheriff’s Deputy investigated the situation and turned her findings over to the prosecutor’s office. Last week a warrant was issued for the arrest of the child’s mother.

Bailey Douglas, aka Bailey Douglass, 30, of Newberry, is expected to be charged with neglect of a dependent – defendant places dependent in a situation that endangers the dependent, a Level 6 felony, once she is in custody and appears for her initial hearing in Greene Superior Court.

The investigating officer, Deputy Heather Wood of the Greene County Sheriff’s Department, was first dispatched along with GCSD Sgt. Bobby Pierce to a location on South Griffin Road in the Newberry area on the report of a juvenile runaway. This occurred around 6 p.m. on Saturday, August 4.

When the deputies arrived, there was a young boy that witnesses found walking on Griffin Road in his PJs without any shoes. He said he was going to Elnora but did not say why. He was about a mile away from his home.

The deputies tried to talk to him, asked about his parents and tried to get more information but he gave vague answers and wouldn’t respond to many of their questions.

They later determined Bailey Douglas was the child’s mother. They attempted to contact her by phone – no answer.

When they asked the child if he would ride with them back to his home, he was reluctant and when they mentioned his mother, he shut down and didn’t want to talk about her or about going home.

So, Sgt. Pierce drove to the Douglas residence on Section Street in Newberry and was able to talk to Douglas. When asked if she knew where her son was, she allegedly said she thought he was out in the garage. When informed of her son’s whereabouts, Sgt. Pierce reported she got upset and said she knew where her kids were 90 percent of the time. Sgt. Pierce asked her to meet the deputies out on Griffin Road to pick up her son.

Deputy Wood reported the mother was upset during her initial contact with her son, asking him what the heck he thought he was doing. The child did not respond and would not get into her vehicle to go home. It took 30-45 minutes for her to convince him to get in her van. The mother told the deputies her son was autistic and had ADHD, that she had a lot of trouble with him, and that she wished there was something she could do about it.

But while the mother was trying to convince the child to go home, there were three other small children who were running around in her van, with the vehicle still running. Deputy Wood walked over to check on them and said two were hanging out a window.

In the probable cause affidavit prepared by Deputy Wood, she wrote, “When speaking with the three children, I observed their hygiene was very poor and the youngest one had food matted in their hair that appeared to have been there for a while. The children also had sores all over their arms and legs and a few on their faces. I also observed the car seats inside the vehicle were not properly restrained with a seat belt and that one of the young children wasn’t using one at all as it had been thrown in the back of the vehicle.”

Before the family left to go home, the deputies made sure all car seats were properly installed and that each child was buckled up.

After this incident, Deputy Wood investigated further and found this was the third incident reported in less than two months in which the same child had run away from home.

According to Deputy Wood, in one of those incidents, the boy was reported as a runaway on July 12. When he was located by the Daviess County Sheriff’s Department, he was found in a corn field near I-69. She wrote that the Daviess County Sheriff’s Department said they have had multiple calls about the same child running away.

The information about this incident and from Deputy Wood’s investigation was then submitted to the Greene County Prosecutor’s Office.

Last week Greene County Chief Deputy Prosecutor Keven McIntosh filed a criminal case against Douglas in Greene Superior Court and a warrant was issued for her arrest last Tuesday, August 21.