The parents of a Macclenny toddler who had ingested morphine pills while the father was looking after the 1-year-old are under arrest, the Baker County Sheriff’s Office has confirmed.
Paramedics were called to the home on Barber Road at some point on Saturday after the mother returned to find the child under the influence of drugs, according to the Sheriff’s Office.
The 1-year-old was taken to Ed Fraser Memorial Hospital for treatment, Officers wrote in a Facebook post.
The child has since been released from the hospital.
The Department of Children and Families have reportedly removed the child from the home and placed him with a relative following his parents’ arrests, Sheriff Scotty Rhoden told News4Jax.
“As bad as it is, this one actually turned out well because the child is safe now,” Rhoden said.
Deputies found out that the toddler was left with the child’s father, 29-year-old Seth Baker, while the mother, 32-year-old Chrystal Baker, partied with her boyfriend, who incidentally is the father’s brother.
When the couple returned home, they discovered that both Seth Baker and the 1-year-old appeared to be under the influence of drugs. The father said he believed the child ingested some morphine pills.
Seth Baker was taken into custody after deputies found him hiding in a camper in the back yard, deputies said.
He initially fled the home to avoid arrest.
The mother’s boyfriend stated that he and the child’s parents are heavy drug users, deputies said.
Morphine pills, methamphetamine and various pipes were found within the child’s reach inside the home.
Deputies later went to the hospital to serve an arrest warrant for theft on the child’s mother – only to find that she had run off and abandoned the child and leaving the toddler in the care of hospital staff.
Chrystal Baker was later located at the Red Roof Inn in Macclenny, where deputies said she tried once more to escape on foot.
Officers ultimately chased her down and captured her in the motel lobby.
The child’s father now faces a felony charge of child neglect causing great bodily harm.
The mother, meanwhile, has been charged with resisting without violence.
Jacksonville Teen Found Safe After Running Away From Home
A Jacksonville teen was found safe Monday after she abruptly ran away from home over the weekend.
Her mother’s emotional plea for the safe return of her teenage daughter, who ran away over the weekend, resonated with hundreds of thousands of people accross social media.
Her parents say that Kyleigh Kosters, 13, was last seen at her Lake Fern Drive home in Mandarin at 11 p.m. Saturday, according to the missing persons report.
The teen was nowhere to be found the next morning.
The teenager clearly stuffed pillows under her bed covers to make it appear as though she was at home sleeping, the report said.
She left the home at some point before 7:45 a.m. Sunday morning.
Her father told police that this is the first time that Kyleigh, who is adopted, has run away, according to the report.
He said that his daughter, whose biological mother may have been involved in the sex trade, recently asked about prostitution. He said that her Google search history includes: “how to find a john” and “what is a pimp.”
The teen’s adoptive mother posted her daughter’s image on Facebook, imploring the public to help find her child.
The post has been shared over 750,000 times since Sunday morning.
“I have an emergency and need prayer,” Kim Kosters wrote in part. “My daughter is missing since last night.”
No further information was available regarding her whereabouts during the time she was missing.