Mom Charged After Shoeless Boy Found Alone In Rock Hill Parking Lot

ROCK HILL, SC,None — A Rock Hill woman was arrested and charged with child neglect after her 3-year-old son was found alone in an apartment complex parking lot.

Melissa Elizabeth Dunn, 20, was taken to the Rock Hill Law Center Friday.

A staff member with Stone Haven Apartments told officers the boy was walking around the parking lot without shoes about 10 a.m., according to a Rock Hill police report. They did not know how long he had been in the parking lot unsupervised.

The child was holding Dunn's driver's license and said, "Mommy is gone," the report states. Officers knocked on Dunn's door several times with no answer. The door was unlocked, so they entered. Inside, they found beer and liquor bottles scattered throughout the apartment. One beer bottle was half-full and sitting on a coffee table in full reach of a child, the report states.

Dunn was asleep in one of the bedrooms, according to the report. She told police she thought her son was in the front room, and when officers told her he was outside without supervision, she said he knows how to unlock doors and had left the apartment before.

Dunn's mother came to take care of the child, and Dunn was arrested, according to the report. The Department of Social Services has also been notified.

WSOC