LANCASTER, S.C. — A Lancaster mother is in jail charged with child neglect.
Police said 27-year-old Myeshia McCain left her Carolina Court apartment late Friday night, and was gone for around five hours.
During that time, a woman called police when she was woken up at 4:30 a.m. by a small child knocking on her door.
The 3-year-old girl was crying, and said she didn't know where her mother was. The girl had walked a large distance across the complex from her home in the middle of the night.
Police arrived and started searching for McCain. Just after 6 a.m. Saturday, she was seen walking through a gate from the woods behind the apartment complex. She told police she'd been at a nearby store, and hadn't been gone that long.
Inside her apartment, police also found a 1-year-old boy alone asleep. McCain was charged with two counts of unlawful neglect toward a child.
"Anybody with a normal capacity wouldn't leave children like that in the middle of the night," said Housing Authority executive director Jerry Witherspoon.
Witherspoon manages the complex, and was called early Saturday morning when the child was found.
"My concern was for the child, just like everybody else," he said.
Neighbors recognized McCain's picture when Channel 9 showed them, but didn't want to talk about the incident Saturday morning.
DSS also began an investigation, and is currently working with the family. The two children were left in the custody of their grandmother, who does not live at the complex.
McCain is in jail on a $50,000 bond.