COLERAIN TOWNSHIP, Ohio — An extradition hearing is scheduled on Tuesday for Heather Adkins, an Indiana mother accused of abandoning her little boy in Colerain Township last week.
Adkins will go to court in Scott County, Ky., where she was arrested on a warrant for an unpaid ticket on Friday night.
"It still breaks my heart,” Crystalyn Davis said. “I want him here with us so bad. I just want to hold him.”
Davis said her childhood friend, Adkins, showed up at her Tazewell, Tennessee door Thursday night.
“She was like I need you to watch the kids for a couple days,” Davis said.
Davis said her Adkins had her 3- and 8-year-old children with her but did not have her other son, Thomas.
“She said she had got in a fight with Kevin, which is the kids’ dad, and that he had pretty much kept Thomas from her,” Davis said. “She said, 'I’m going back up there to get him,' and then I’ll come back and get the two boys.”
She said her friend was gone within 10 minutes.
The following day, Davis said she saw the posters with Thomas’ photo circulating on social media. Colerain Township Police Department was asking for help locating anyone who knew the little boy after Ron Reese found him wandering alone in the rain on Sheed Road.
“He seemed cold, he seemed lost, he seemed disheveled,” Reese said.
Officers said the boy was non-verbal and had no way to explain how he ended up alone there. Friday night, detectives connected with Davis.
“A detective had me video chat with her so he could listen in,” Davis said. “She was not making any sense. She was just talking out of her mind, and I’m almost positive she was in a drug-induced psychosis.”
Police found Adkins at a gas station in Georgetown, Kentucky, Friday.
Investigators believe Adkins left her Indiana home with the three children. Around 75 miles later, she left Thomas in Colerain Township before taking the other children to the childhood friend in Tennessee.
From jail, Adkins admitted to abandoning her son.
“No, I didn’t leave him with anyone,” Adkins said.
When asked why, Adkins said, “To save him from me.”
Family friends said Thomas was turning 6 that weekend. His brothers are with Davis.
“The boys are doing great," Davis said. "They’re happy. They have no clue what’s going on."
Davis is a mother herself and said she is willing to give the boys a loving home, but she does need some help with clothing and other items. She is organizing a fundraiser set to help get the children back on their feet.
She said she now must work to gain custody of Thomas so he can reunite with his siblings.
Adkins' extradition hearing takes place in Scott County, Kentucky. Investigators will then bring the mother back to Hamilton County where she is accused of leaving her son.
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