HARALSON COUNTY, Ga. — An Alabama mother is facing charges for leaving her 7-year-old stepson on the side of Interstate 20 in west Georgia earlier this week.
Haralson County deputies responded to the interstate on Wednesday morning after a Good Samaritan truck driver spotted a child, pulled over and call 911.
The boy told deputies that he was on his way to school and got sick, so they stopped on the side of the road. He said when he got out, the car drove away.
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Mary Dudley, 47, of Ranburne, Alabama later contacted Carroll County deputies and told them she had accidentally left her stepson.
While talking to her, deputies say her speech was slightly slurred. She later admitted to having taken Xanax before driving.
Dudley told investigators that her stepson had been sick the night before, so when he started feeling sick again on the way to school, she pulled over. When she heard the door close, she assumed he was back inside and drove off. It wasn’t until later that she realized he was not in the car.
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She was arrested and charged with DUI, cruelty to children, reckless conduct and more.
“This is a kind of case that shocks the conscious,” stated Sheriff Stacy Williams. “I have said many times that driving under the influence is murder on the highways. This woman left a small child on the side of the interstate due to her altered state of mind, and we could have had a devastating outcome.”
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