DORAL, Fla. — A 31-year-old woman from Doral was arrested over the weekend after she left her son, who is nonverbal, alone for more than 17 hours, police said.
According to her arrest report, Doral police responded to the 6300 block of Northwest 114th Avenue just after 8 a.m. Saturday after a woman who was out jogging called 911 and reported that she saw a boy, around 9 or 10 years old, running outside while wearing only a diaper.
The caller said the boy was wandering close to traffic before running into The Courts gated community. She said she tried to communicate with the boy, but she believed he was special needs and/or nonverbal.
Doral police officers found the boy, who they said was indeed nonverbal, and were eventually able to identify his mother as Melissa Marie Luckett.
According to her arrest report, Luckett was last seen on a Ring doorbell video at about 9:35 p.m. the previous night and she last spoke to her father around 11 p.m.
Police said Luckett and her son were scheduled to fly to Virginia Saturday morning to visit her father, but they never arrived.
According to the report, Luckett’s father said his daughter and grandson were “attached at the hip,” so he was fearful something serious may have happened to her.
But police said Luckett returned to her home in Doral at about 3 p.m. Saturday, notably while wearing different clothing than she was last seen wearing in the Ring video.
Police transported Luckett to the Doral police station to be interviewed, however her statement to detectives was redacted from the publicly released report.
Luckett was arrested on a child neglect charge.
According to the report, the Florida Department of Children and Families initially took custody of Luckett’s son, however her father was flying to South Florida from Virginia to take custody of him.
As of Monday afternoon, Luckett was no longer appearing in the online jail database.
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