INDIANAPOLIS – A woman was charged with neglect Wednesday after prosecutors said she allowed her 3-year-old son to wander away from home and play along a busy interstate.
Stunned motorists found Damon Dyer, barefoot and wearing only a diaper and T-shirt, early Saturday while his mother slept in a nearby apartment on Indianapolis' west side.
Police said at least half a dozen cars and a semitrailer swerved into other lanes on Interstate 465 to avoid the child, who was not hurt. Drivers pulled over and took care of him until officers arrived.
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Nancy Dyer, 30, whose son and a 2-year-old daughter were taken into protective custody, was charged with four counts of felony neglect.
"A couple of the charges are related to the condition of the home and another child that was still in the apartment," said Helen Marchal, a deputy Marion County prosecutor.
Investigators said the boy left the second-story apartment about 9 a.m. and walked down the stairs, around a fence and onto the highway about 200 yards away.
Dyer told police that she had recently moved to Indiana from Florida and said the apartment was messy because she had not finished unpacking.
Dyer was scheduled to appear Thursday for an initial hearing in Marion Superior Court. She was being held at the county jail Wednesday night after a judge set bail at $3,500.
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