A woman was arrested after her 4-year-old daughter was found wandering by herself cold and soaking wet through Port Wentworth’s Newport subdivision Thursday afternoon.
Lakiesha Lynn Medsker, 36, has been charged with cruelty to to children, police said.
Officers were called to the subdivision about 4:56 p.m. after a Comcast worker saw the girl “soaking wet, shivering, walking the neighborhood alone” at Newport Boulevard and Cordage Circle, said Cpl. Kenny McDonald, a detective with the Port Wentworth police department.
The girl appeared to have previously been in some body of water.
Police, Soutside Fire/EMS medics and Port Wentworth firefighters began treating her before taking her to Memorial University Medical Center.
It was not clear how much the child had been affected by the cold, but it was 47 degrees outside when police arrived, and she was completely soaked, McDonald said.
The cable worker who found the girl told police the girl was crying, confused and unable to speak.
McDonald said it was expected the girl would be released Thursday night.
There were other children in the home where the girl lived, which is about four blocks from where she was found, and representatives of Division of Family and Children Services were called to the location, McDonald said.
The other children were turned over to other family members, he said.
Thursday was the second time in less than one year that a child was found wandering alone and soaking wet down a street in Newport.
On May 21, 2013, police were called to the subdivision after a woman found a child walking down the middle of a street.
Officers discovered the child was missing from a nearby home day care, which was located close to a pond.
The operators of the day care, Shauna Rice and Edma Herrington, had been unaware the child was missing, police said at the time. The two were arrested, and police called parents to retrieve their children.
McDonald said the girl found Thursday lived less than a block from the day care, but that police do not believe the two situations are connected.