New Bedford mother allegedly abandons son on side of the road
By: News Staff
news@abc6.com
MATTAPOISETT, M.A. – A New Bedford mother is facing several abandonment charges after leaving her child on the side of the road in freezing temperatures last Friday.
According to police, 28-year-old Marina Johnson was driving with her two sons, ages eight and eleven, when she told the older one to get out, and shut the door behind him.
The young boy complied with his mother, and she sped off down the road.
Authorities say the 11-year-old walked to the nearest home on Mattapoisett Neck Road in extremely windy and cold weather, where he knocked on the door and asked the resident for a ride back to New Bedford. The resident however, called police.
Officers responded to the home just after 8:45 p.m., to find the boy without a hat or gloves, visibly shaking and crying.
When asked where he lives, the young boy told the officers that he, his mother and brother had been staying at a shelter because their home had burned down a few weeks prior.
From there, the New Bedford Police were notified and were requested to check shelters for any sign of Johnson.
While searching, officers discovered the car Johnson had used earlier at a nearby shelter, and that it had been previously reported stolen.
Police say they entered the shelter and were able to locate and speak to Johnson briefly, but soon saw she had ran out the side door with her 8-year-old son.
She was apprehended when both Mattapoisett and New Bedford officers located Johnson knee deep in water and mud in the marsh with her young son.
Johnson was arrested and charges with the following offenses:
- Reckless Endangerment of a child under 18.
- Abandonment of a child without support.
She was held on $25,000 bail.
The 8 and 11-year-old boys were placed in Foster Care by the Department of Children and Families.
©WLNE-TV / ABC6 2017
