Arkansas mother faces child endangerment charge after 3-year-old found outside in only shoes, diaper

An Arkansas mother faces a child endangerment charge after, authorities say, her young child was found in only shoes and a diaper outside in sweltering temperatures.

Brittany N. Hill, 25, of Paragould was cited on a charge of second-degree endangering the welfare of a minor, records show.

A caller reported to police around 11 a.m. Monday that she and her boyfriend had seen the 3-year-old child walking alone on Sandino Drive and eventually on Melrose Street, according to a Jonesboro Police Department report.

Police said a witness later arrived in his vehicle at the intersection of Belt and Melrose streets, telling an officer that Hill was looking for the boy.

Hill later told officers that she and her son had stayed the night with a relative at a home in the 1100 block of Sandino Drive.

The mother said she left the house at one point to run an errand, believing that her sleeping child would be fine in the care of her 16-year-old cousin, who was also asleep, according to the report.

Hill returned to the residence to find that the boy and his shoes were missing, at which point she began going door to door in a search for her child, police said.

The outside temperature at the time was said to be in the low 90s, with a heat index of 104 degrees, factoring in humidity.

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