"Jane Doe" - 3 yo - Lenawee MI

Police: Mom Abandons Child On Highway


Child Placed In Protective Services


LENAWEE COUNTY, Mich. -- An Adrian woman accused of abandoning her 3-year-old daughter along a busy highway in the middle of the night last week remains jailed.
Brandy Michelle Wellman, 30, was charged Friday in a Lenawee court on one count each of felony abandonment and second-degree child abuse.
She is being held in lieu of $200,000 bond.
The charges stem from an investigation that began early Tuesday after a trucker spotted the toddler running in nothing but a pink nightgown on eastbound U.S. 223 near Van Highway around 2:30 a.m.
Police said the toddler was confused and disoriented when the police picked her up.
"She didn't know her last name, all we knew was her first name and that she had a sister that went to school and her parent's first name, but she didn't know where she lived," said Lenawee County Sheriff Jack Welsh.
Two hours later, Wellman called the police from her home several miles away to report that her daughter was missing.
Wellman originally told her family and police that she thought that someone kidnapped her daughter from her bed.
"What I think happened is, I think someone took her. To my knowledge we have some weirdos living around here," Wellman's sister in-law said.
Some neighbors said they didn't buy Wellman's account.
"Well, put it this way. We suspected something because this is a good neighborhood," said Mike Santiago.
"She originally said someone broke in and kidnapped her 3-year-old toddler, then confessed that it was she who grabbed her daughter around midnight and took off," said Welsh.
Welsh said they are still trying to determine why Wellman would abandon her child on the side of the road.
Neighbors said Wellman has been acting strange recently, but they never saw her mistreating her children.
The 3-year-old was placed in protective custody.
A preliminary hearing was set for Wellman on Monday at 1:30 p.m.
Officials said Wellman may be asked to undergo a mental evaluation.