Toronto mother faces charges after boy found wandering naked in cold
Toronto police say they are charging the mother of a four-year-old boy after the child was found wandering outside in the bitter cold today in the city's west end.
The 23-year-old woman is facing a charge of abandonment of a child under the age of 10.
The boy (who police originally said was three) was found today around 1:30 p.m. ET at Lake Shore Boulevard West and Twelfth Street in Etobicoke. The expected high today in Toronto was –14 C
A neighbour heard the boy crying and saw him out a window. She recognized the boy and scooped him up in a blanket, but after going to to the child's house found nobody home. The neighbour took the child to her own house and called police an hour later, police said.
Const. Jeniffer Sidhu said it appears a neighbour found the Etobicoke child "just in enough time."
There were no signs of injury or distress to the boy, but he was taken to St. Joseph's Health Centre as a precaution.
"The child was able to say, 'Mommy goes.'" Sidhu said.
The incident comes one day after the death of a three-year-old Toronto boy who wandered away from home in the middle of the night and spent almost six hours outside.
On Thursday, Elijiah Marsh left the low-rise apartment building where he was staying at around 4 a.m. and was later found without vital signs. He was pronounced dead in hospital a few hours later.
