Mother slept while 4-year-old wandered outside, police say

Staff report

AUSTINTOWN

Police arrested a woman who slept while her 4-year-old daughter was found walking on New Road, according to a report.

A neighbor found the girl, who said she lived “way down the street,” and the neighbor walked with her for 20 minutes attempting to locate her residence before calling police.

The girl told the neighbor she couldn’t wake her mom because she sleeps with the door locked.

Police knocked on the back door of the house, receiving no response. An officer entered through the open front door and located the mother, Kirsten Adkins, 26, of New Road, and her boyfriend, who both reportedly were unaware that the child had left.

Adkins was charged with endangering children.

She will appear in Mahoning County Area Court today.

On March 21, a concerned neighbor found the same child two buildings down from her residence. Adkins was sleeping, and the girl had left through the back door, according to the report.

Also, officers received a call Sept. 18 of last year claiming a young girl was running around a parking lot crying with no adults around. When police arrived, Adkins was with her daughter and said she was watching her daughter from inside the house as she played.