FOUND PARENT - 4-5 yo Hearing Impaired Girl - Westgate/Wellington FL

Westgate FL ---- A passing motorist found a
young hearing-impaired child walking alone in the Westgate neighborhood
of suburban West Palm Beach and Palm Beach County sheriff's deputies
are trying to determine who she is how she got there.

The girl,
who is believed to be about 4 of 5 years old, was spotted by the
motorist around 8:30 a.m. walking along the south side of Okeechobee
Boulevard near the Westgate area, according to a sheriff's report.
Deputies were called in and they took custody of the child and turned
her over to officials from the Department of Children and Families.Sheriff's
spokeswoman Teri Barbera said the girl is unharmed but appears to be
hearing-impaired. Attempts by deputies to communicate with her using
sign language were unsuccessful, she said.No missing child
reports have been received matching the description of the girl, Barbera
said. Deputies have been knocking on doors in the neighborhood
throughout the day with a picture of the child and have used a reverse
911 system to call homes in the surrounding area about the child.The
girl has shoulder length blonde hair and brown eyes. She is wearing a
green short sleeve shirt with flowers on the front, green plaid shorts
and lavender and white tennis shoes, according to the report.Anyone
who can identify the girl can call the sheriff's office at (561) 688-3400.

The mentally disturbed mother of a young girl who was found walking
alone in the Westgate neighborhood of surburban West Palm Beach has been
charged with child neglect without bodily harm, according to a Palm
Beach County Sheriff's Office affidavit.A passing motorist found
the child, who is believed to be five or six years old, around 8:30 a.m.
Saturday walking along the south side of Okeechobee Boulvevard near the
Westgate. The mother, Julie Gramson, told detectives she was protecting
her child from her daughter's grandfather. Gramson claimed her father
threatened to kill her and take her daughter away.But Victor
Rodriguez, Gramson's boyfriend, told a detective that Gramson is bipolar
and that she was released from St. Mary's Medical Center's mental
health department on Thursday. He said Gramson had been acting strangely
the night before the girl was discovered walking alone.Court
records show that Gramson, 43, of West Palm Beach, was involuntary
committed to mental health facilities earlier this week and twice in
2007.Gramson told the detective that she took her daughter and
hid in the bushes on Cherry Road and Beach Road in West Palm Beach,
where she lost her. Gramson said she spent all day looking for her
daughter, but that she didn't call police because she didn't trust them.
The mother said she saw her father with a gun and driving a black
pick-up truck.The blond-haired, brown-eyed girl was found
unharmed. Sheriff's deputies initially thought she was hearing-impaired.
Attempts by deputies to communicate with her using sign language were
unsuccessful, said sheriff's spokeswoman Teri Barbera.The child,
however, is autistic and a student at a West Palm Beach school for
autistic children.The sheriff's affidavit states this isn't the
first time Gramson left her daughter alone. A neighbor told detectives
Gramson walked off, leaving her daughter by herself two years ago.