Mom charged after toddler found wandering around Austintown apartment complex
Austintown Police have charged the mother of a toddler found wandering through a township apartment complex on Tuesday. Natalie Byers, who is a resident of that apartment complex, is charged with child endangering. Police say someone contacted them to report that he spotted the little girl wandering unsupervised through the complex on Compass West Drive.
AUSTINTOWN TWP., Ohio - Austintown Police have charged the mother of a two-year-old girl found wandering through a township apartment complex on Tuesday.
Natalie Byers, who is a resident of that apartment complex, is charged with child endangering.
Lieutenant Mark Skowron said that Byers was asleep at the time and there was no evidence of drug use. Skowron said that Byers told police that she had stayed up late the night before. He said that the door was unlocked.
21 News spoke with the man who found the little girl. Joseph Potts said that he was outside playing with his own kids at the apartment complex when he spotted the toddler walking on Compass West Drive. He said that he followed her to see if anyone was behind her and there was no one around.
He said that she had no shoes on and a soiled diaper. "I put my hands out and she put her hands out and I brought her home and a neighbor called 911," he described.
He is grateful that "by the grace of God" he was there. "Thank God someone found her before God forbid anything happened to her," Potts stated.
The child could not tell police where she lived, so they canvassed area apartments, but were unable to locate those responsible for her care.
Police located the child's mother later that afternoon.
Representatives from Mahoning County Children Services have taken custody of the girl, who police say is in good condition.
