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Warning: This article contains discussion of child neglect which some readers may find distressing.
A one-year-old boy has been described as a 'miracle' after he was spotted by a trucker crawling towards a highway.
The little boy was reported to police after he was spotted on Tuesday (9 July) in a ditch off of I-10 East near Vinton, Louisiana.
His discovery came just one day after his four-year-old brother was sadly found dead in the water behind the Vinton Welcome Center on Monday.
The toddler was found about twenty feet from a sign which reads: "Do not feed alligators". There were no signs of major trauma on his body.
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After the toddler was found, police put out a BOLO (Be On the Look Out) for information and received a report from a family member from Mississippi, who reached out to express concern the four-year-old may be one of her relatives.
She also told law enforcement about the missing one-year-old, prompting the Calcasieu Sheriff’s Office Marine Division to prepare a search in the water where his brother was found.
However, the search was called off when the trucker spotted the baby a few miles away.
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Speaking to KPLC, the trucker said: "Sure enough there was a little boy sitting down the embankment there. As I approached him he smiled at me, and then he stood up and starting crying and walked towards me.
"Once he walked towards me I grabbed his hand and he stopped crying at that point."
In a news conference, Calcasieu Sheriff Stitch Guillory said the baby had survived in the ditch for two days.
He had bug bites on him, but was otherwise okay.
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“We looked at this one-year-old, he was our miracle baby because he was still alive,” Guillory said, according to KPLC.
“Unbelievable. This kid spent two days out in the weather on the side of the highway thank god that trucker saw him when you look at the video here he was, you know, crawling toward the highway.”
The little boy was taken to hospital after being found, and has since been moved to state care.
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An investigation into the discovery of the boy and his brother led police to their mother, Aaliyah N. Jack, of Lake Charles.
Guillory told press that while it's possible children may wander off, there's no excuse for parents not to report them missing.
“As a parent myself, you know seeing that kid pulled from the water is gut-wrenching and heartbreaking," he said.
"As a parent, you’re supposed to watch for your kids and look out for your kids and not just leave them in the water and drive off."
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Jack has been arrested in Mississippi on charges of failure to report a missing child, but additional charges are expected. Her bond is set at $300,000.
The mother is now fighting extradition to Louisiana, but the Calcasieu Parish District Attorney’s Office is requesting that the governor write a letter demanding that she be extradited.
If you’ve been affected by any of these issues and want to speak to someone in confidence regarding the welfare of a child, the Childhelp USA National Child Abuse Hotline (1-800-4-A-CHILD (1-800-422-4453) operates 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and receives calls from throughout the United States, Canada, US Virgin Islands, Guam and Puerto Rico.
Emily Brown