Mother accused of abandoning autistic child speaks out from Scott Co. jail

GEORGETOWN, Ky. (WKYT) - In a one-on-one interview which lasted nearly a half-hour, 32-year-old Heather Nicole Adkins of Shelbyville, Ind. admitted to leaving her non-verbal, autistic five-year-old son in Colerain Township, Ohio. But her story shifted several times throughout the course of the interview.

(Watch the full interview below)

“I meant to leave him there with Patty,” Adkins said when asked if she left her child with someone.

“No I left him there with Brad, didn’t I?” Adkins answered later when I asked again if her son had been left alone.

“You’ve given me contradictory answers to the names of people you left him with in Colerain,” I said. “So did you leave him with someone or did you not?”

Adkins’ response? “No, I didn’t leave him with anyone.”

Adkins is accused of abandoning her non-verbal, autistic five-year-old son in Colerain Township, Ohio. Colerain is about 75 miles from their home of Shelbyville, Indiana.

Ronald Reese was headed out to pick up food Thursday night when he found Adkins’ son, saying he looked like he was in a daze as he walked along a road with no sidewalks.

”I immediately stopped and was like ‘Wait a minute, this isn’t normal,’” Reese said.

The child is in the custody of Hamilton County Jobs and Family Services. Assistant Chief of Georgetown Police Darin Allgood says Adkins was arrested this weekend at a gas station in Georgetown for an unpaid fine dating back to 2011. The gas station is about 85 miles away from where she allegedly left her child. She has been charged with child endangerment.

The incident prompted emotional responses from parents like Reese and those in the neighborhood.

“I’m angered, Reese said. “If you didn’t want to deal with your child or your son, take him to the nearest relative that you think is fit to take care of him.”

”It hits close to home, I have a child that’s nonverbal as well and to think about him being alone, without anyone watching over him or him being able to express where he’s supposed to be or what happened to him?” said Michael Heithaus, who lives near the road where the child was found. “It’s very sad.”

Reese hopes it can serve as a wake-up call for Adkins.

“I’m just trying to understand why you ultimately chose to do that,” I asked Adkins.

“To save him from me,” Adkins replied.

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