A 1-year-old “miracle baby” reportedly endured two days of occasional severe weather before a truck driver noticed him crawling along an interstate highway in Louisiana, just one day after his 4-year-old brother was discovered dead nearby in what investigators believe was an abandonment case, authorities said.
The infant looked to be in excellent condition overall, although he had several insect bites, according to Calcasieu Parish Sheriff Gary “Stitch” Guillory.
“We look at this 1-year-old as our miracle baby, he was still alive,” Guillory said during a press conference in Lake Charles, some 200 miles west of New Orleans. “This kid spent two days out in the weather on the side of the highway. … Thank God that trucker (saw) him.”
Driving on I-10, truck driver Reginald Walton told KADN that he saw something “to the right, over in the… embankment” and surmised it was a doll that someone had thrown out of a car. “But as I was passing by, I saw it move, and I say, ‘Hey, that looks like a baby,’” he said.
Walton claimed it took him around a quarter of a mile to stop the truck at a speed of 60 to 75 mph. He thus promptly dialed 911 and rushed back. When deputies arrived, they were able to positively identify the child as the missing 1 year old, the sheriff said.
As of Friday morning, the 4-year-old’s autopsy was pending after he was discovered Monday in a lake outside an Interstate 10 welcome center near the Texas border. He had been last seen Saturday with his mother, Aaliyah Jack, 25, of Lake Charles, and the one-year-old sibling.
On that day, hurricane Beryl hit Texas before weakening into a tropical storm and tropical depression as it moved into Louisiana, bringing rain and wind gusts as high as 60 mph to the parish.
The infant’s mother has been detained in Mississippi and is being charged with murder as well as other offenses after allegedly leaving the kids behind, the sheriff announced Thursday. She was scheduled for extradition to Louisiana, where she will be prosecuted for neglecting to report a kid missing. According to Guillory, the judge who issued the warrant put the amount at $300,000.
