Man faces child endangering for running into freezing woods with child

LIBERTY

A Brookfield man is charged with child endangering after police say he crashed into a telephone pole on Logan Avenue Tuesday afternoon and ran into the woods with his child in the cold weather.

When police responded to the accident at about 3:30 p.m., they observed that 37-year-old Thomas Towbridge’s car had sheared the telephone pole in half. Witnesses told police Towbridge ran into the woods between Colonial Avenue and Mansell Drive with a child despite the 21 degree weather.

Police followed the suspect’s and a child’s footprints in the snow going into the woods and down steep ravines for about a mile and a half, the report said.

They pinged the suspect’s cell phone and discovered he was still in wooded areas but he was gone by the time they got there, the report said.

Brookfield police were advised of the incident, and they found Towbridge and his child at their house in Brookfield.

Towbridge told police he became hysterical after he had crashed the car and started running, but eventually got a ride from a friend back to his house. He had a cell phone but said he didn’t call police because his hands were too cold, the report said.

Police reported Towbridge was charged with traffic citations and child endangering because he fled an accident with a child in frigid temperatures through rough terrain.