A harrowing tale that has left many people shocked and amazed: 34-year-old Sarah Vicker is now entangled in serious legal repercussions after police claim she abandoned her baby girl, leaving the 1-year-old alone in their apartment.
They say she slipped out of her house quietly, having set her daughter down in a playpen — no food for her, no comfort, no one to tend to her, just a one-year-old little girl who trusted that mom was supposed to come back, until hours had passed.
It is claimed that Sarah, before leaving, wrote a goodbye letter to her partner and then travelled to a nearby church. Her actions indicated that she was running away from a life she felt could no longer be faced, leaving behind her most vulnerable responsibility in the process.
When finally, after some two hours, officers located Sarah,
they were trying to comprehend what might have made her leave her child. She reportedly told them, “My flesh and spirit could not take it no longer, so I left.”
Meanwhile, the infant was left to her own devices in the vacant apartment, unable to call for help, alone and frightened, with nothing but her hope of her mother’s return — which did not come until authorities intervened. Thankfully, law enforcement was able to intervene before any harm came to the child, but the hours she was in that apartment are unimaginable.
Sarah was subsequently charged with child abandonment, and the story had quite a number of people within this community shocked and trying to question how a mother could just leave her child in such a helpless circumstance. It is a heart-wrenching reminder that support, care, and protection are what children need, and it begs the question of how we could do more to find those parents who are needing help before tragedy strikes. The little girl is safe now, but it could be a while before she feels the effects of those solitary hours. Many are left heartbroken, imagining what she must have gone through for that moment in time: the fear, confusion, and longing for a parent who did not return when she needed her most.
