UPDATE: Police in South Ogden said Thursday the young girl who was in the Division of Child and Family Services' custody after the incident has been returned to the care of her parents.
Police have presented the facts of the case to the Ogden City Attorney for review, and that office will determine what, if any, legal action might be taken against the girl's parents.
Previous story continues below:
SOUTH OGDEN, Utah — Police officers searched for close to 11 hours Tuesday morning looking for the parents of a 2-year-old girl found wandering the streets in her pajamas.
Police said a passerby spotted the girl near 40th South and Madison Avenue around 1:30 a.m. She was then taken to the police station as officers worked to find the toddler’s parents.
“We couldn’t get a lot out of her because of her age,” said South Ogden Police Sgt. Trent Olsen. “Officers attempted to find porch lights that were on, anybody home, anybody who looked, we actually knocked. Several doors.”
When officer still hadn’t gotten any solid leads by 8 a.m., they started canvassing the area.
“We were very concerned when we didn’t get a call by 8 o’clock in the morning that there could actually be a health issue, with one of the parents… which is why we started our door to door active search,” Olsen said.
Just before noon, officers did find the girl’s parents, about a quarter of a block from where she was picked up. The girl’s grandmother, Laura Marsh, told FOX 13 News the parents had both worked late Monday night and assumed she was still in bed.
“When [my daughter] came home last night, she just went to bed,” Marsh said. “And she didn’t even know she was missing yet. So she went to sleep, and woke up and that’s when they couldn’t find her.”
South Ogden Police are investigating the incident to see if criminal charges will be filed. Meanwhile, the Division of Child and Family Services is investigating to see if they’ll allow the child to go back home.
The parents have two other children in the home.
Marsh said the ordeal has been devastating to the family, who just want to see their daughter and know she is OK.
“She’s worried that’s what people are going to do is think that she’s a bad mom and that she allowed this to happen,” Marsh said. “She didn’t. She was working hard last night.”
As of Tuesday evening, the girl was still in the custody of DCFS.
