Shelbyville mother says she abandoned her son in Ohio 'to save him'

GEORGETOWN, Ky. — A Shelbyville mother accused of abandoning her young son with autism in Ohio is sitting in a Kentucky jail tonight, waiting to appear before a judge.

Heather Adkins, 32, was arrested Saturday night at a gas station in Georgetown, Kentucky after her 6-year-old son was found all alone Thursday night in Colerain Township, a suburb of Cincinnati.

Court documents say passing drivers found the boy a block from where he was abandoned. He was wearing a jacket and sweats.

In a jailhouse interview with a station in Lexington, Adkins admitted leaving her son, but her story shifted several times over the course of the interview.

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"I left him there with Patty. No, I left him there with Brad, didn't I?", Adkins says to the interviewer.

The interviewer then asks Adkins to clarify whether she left her son with anyone.

After a long pause, Adkins says "No, I didn't leave him with anyone."

When asked why, Adkins says, "To save him from me."

Her son is now in the custody of Child Protective Services in Cincinnati.

Adkins is waiting to appear in court on a traffic ticket out of Kentucky. Ohio authorities also want her held for child endangerment.

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Sharon Eads, Adkins' mother, described the events as "a nightmare."

"I love my daughter. I'm her mother. But I love my grandchildren, too, Eads said. "My family is in a state of shock because it's not the Heather that we know that would do this to her child."

Eads hopes she is able to speak with her grandson while he's in the custody of CPS.

"I hope and pray to God that they at least let me video chat my grandson to let him know that, you know, 'Grandma's here and I love you' — and that he's not alone."

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The Georgetown Police Department said Adkins gave officers a false name, but her actual Social Security number. After running her Social Security Number, police found Adkins had a warrant for failure to pay a ticket from 2011 in Kentucky.

Police did not know until after Adkins' arrest that Indiana and Ohio agencies were looking for her.

Georgetown Police Department Assistant Chief Darin Allgood said Adkins was acting belligerent and beating on windows at the Clarks Pump-N-Go gas station.

"She was located in the parking lot, knocking on windows of cars, hanging around, not really having a purpose," said Georgetown Police Department Assistant Chief Darin Allgood.

Allgood said the department had no idea Adkins was wanted for allegedly abandoning her child until Sunday morning.

"The reason we weren't able to serve the warrants was because it wasn't entered in (the National Crime Information Center)," Allgood said. "I guess the stuff he had was just for Ohio."

The Colerain (Ohio) Police Department filed paperwork to keep her in jail there for child endangerment.

"She should go to court either (Monday) or Tuesday. She will go before to waive her extradition back to Ohio or we will go from there," Allgood said.