Couple Allegedly Moved Out of Apartment While Woman’s 12-Year-Old Son Was at School — Without Telling Him

YOU NEED TO KNOW

• A Texas couple allegedly moved out of their home and abandoned the woman’s 12-year-old son without informing him

• Erica Renee Sanders and her boyfriend, Keven Dwyane Adams, allegedly left the house “completely barren” while the child was at school on October 17

• Both Sanders and Adams were arrested and Sanders was charged with child abandonment

A Texas mother is accused of packing up her entire apartment while her child was at school and leaving without telling him.

Erica Renee Sanders was charged with felony child endangerment after she moved out of the Copperas Cove apartment where she and her 12-year-old son were staying while he was in school without telling him, according to a complaint obtained by PEOPLE. local output KWTX He was the first to break the news.

According to the complaint, the middle school student’s principal alerted officers with the Copperas Cove Police Department to the situation around 5:18 p.m. local time on Friday, Oct. 17, after she got off the school bus to go home and saw “her family had packed up and moved and left her there.”

According to a responding officer’s account of events, “furniture and other household items” in the apartment were gone when the young boy left for school that Friday morning. Describing the unit as “empty” and “completely barren”, the officer said the boy confirmed “the apartment wasn’t like this when he left”.

While police were at the home, a neighbor told cops that Sanders and her boyfriend, Keven Dwyane Adams, had a “history” of kicking her son out of the house. One of the responding officers reiterated this, stating that there was a “history of arguments” between the couple and the child, according to the complaint.

The boy also told officers that the couple stated they would “move at some point” but did not notify him of this. Adams later told police that his girlfriend had not “abandoned” her son but was now living with him and [her son] “He was not welcome in his home,” the complaint said.

Sanders said his brother, who is his son’s uncle, had to pick up his son from school, but he refused to give officers contact information or any additional information about the man, according to the complaint. Adams later told officers he was going to pick up Sanders’ son and take him to his uncle’s, but “several hours” passed before any attempt was made to retrieve the child. Officers also contacted the uncle’s girlfriend, who said she had no knowledge that she was supposed to pick up the middle school student.

According to the complaint, officers brought the 12-year-old boy to the Copperas Cove Police Department and alerted Child Protective Services (CPS). After interviewing Sanders and Adams, CPS told officers to release the child to Adams, who refused to give the couple’s new address. Police had to look at water mains records to find the house.

The Texas Department of Family and Protective Services did not immediately respond to PEOPLE’s request for comment.

Finally, around 9:20 p.m. the same day, Adams gained custody of the child at the home but told one of the police officers that he would not take the child if there was a warrant for Sanders’ arrest. The officer also said he “complained at length about the 12-year-old boy.”

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In a statement to PEOPLE, a spokesperson for the Copperas Cove Police Department confirmed that both Sanders and Adams were arrested and the case “was forwarded to the prosecutor’s office for review.”

According to court documents, Sanders is accused in Texas of knowingly abandoning a child under 15 with no intention of returning; this is a third-degree felony in Texas.

Read the original article People