A 1-year-old child dubbed the “miracle baby” has defied the odds after being discovered alive, crawling along a Louisiana roadside following the tragic death of his 4-year-old brother and the arrest of their mother.
The unfolding drama began when authorities found the body of a 4-year-old boy in a lake located behind an Interstate 10 welcome center close to the Texas state line, according to Fox 4 KDFW.
Sheriff Gary “Stitch” Guillory of Calcasieu Parish shared during a press briefing in Lake Charles that the child had been last seen with his mother, Aaliyah Jack, 25, alongside his younger sibling.
Fearing the worst for the 1-year-old, search efforts were underway early Tuesday morning to comb through the lake where the older child’s body was discovered.
Hope was renewed for the youngest child’s condition when a truck driver alerted authorities that he spotted an infant along the roadside amidst lingering stormy conditions from Hurricane Beryl.
“This kid spent two days out in the weather on the side of the highway. Thank God that trucker [saw] him,” said the sheriff.
As previously reported by The Dallas Express, Hurricane Beryl had made landfall in Texas just before the infant was discovered, adding to the urgency and difficulty of the search and rescue operations amid the severe weather.
Meanwhile, Aaliyah Jack was arrested Monday night in Meridian, Mississippi, over 350 miles away from where her children were found. She faces charges in Louisiana for failure to report a missing child with a bond set at $300,000 by a local judge. The investigation remains ongoing, with authorities yet to determine additional charges at this, according to Fox 4.
Louisiana’s current laws surrounding failure to report a missing child vary by severity and associated sentencing based on the accused’s actions.
According to Justia, in the state of Louisiana, “if the child is determined to have been either physically or sexually abused during the time that the child was missing, then the offender shall be imprisoned at hard labor for not more than ten years without benefit of parole, probation, or suspension of sentence, and fined not more than ten thousand dollars.”
Furthermore, “If the child is found unharmed, then the offender shall be imprisoned for not more than six months, or fined not more than five hundred dollars, or both.”
At the time of publication, online records did not indicate if Aaliyah Jack had retained legal counsel or issued a statement in response to the allegations against her.
The Dallas Express reached out to the Calcasieu Parish Sheriff’s Office for an update but did not receive a response.