Mom not charged for dumping disabled daughter at bar
Lynn Cameron (Caryville Police Department)
Abandoning a child who needs help is never right, but it’s not always illegal.
A Chicago-area woman who drove to Tennessee to dump off her mentally disabled 19-year-old daughter will not be charged, police said Tuesday in The Knoxville News Sentinel.
Police in the tiny town of Caryville had tried since June 28 to figure out the identity of the young woman. A break in the case came 10 days later when a Chicago-area resident recognized the daughter on a missing persons website and alerted authorities, who contacted the mom – Eva Cameron, 45, of Algonquin, Ill.
The mom traveled back to Tennessee to speak to police, not to pick up her daughter, Lynn Cameron, who has the mental capacity of a toddler and could not identify herself or her mother.
“[The mom] said that she did not want her, that she couldn’t take care of her and that she wasn’t going to take her back to Illinois,” said Caryville police Assistant Chief Stephanie Smith in The Chicago Tribune.
“She let her out to use the bathroom and drove away,” Smith said Tuesday. “She said she just couldn’t handle her anymore.”
Cameron, who has another mentally disabled child, cannot be charged because the daughter she abandoned is legally an adult.
Cameron told The Northwest Herald in suburban Chicago that she drove her daughter to Tennessee because it has the “No. 1 health care system in the United States of America” and she wanted the best for her child. She also said her church directed her there because it is a more Baptist area.
Tuesday, the daughter became an official ward of the state of Tennessee.
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155 comments Add your comment
Godawgs75
July 11th, 2012
2:40 pm
She is from Ill. same place as Obama, the govt probably didnt pay her enough to keep her. What did you expect from a state Obama came from.
Penny
July 11th, 2012
2:48 pm
Not going to judge her cause I haven’t walked in her shoes. I can’t imagine having one disabled child, let alone TWO. People in this situation need help!!
I’m with you, Keri.
Dana P.
July 11th, 2012
2:53 pm
That is really disturbing.
Once, when driving from Ohio to Atlanta, my car broke down in Caryville, TN and I had to stay there for two days. I will say that was one of friendliest towns I have ever been in! The people were incredibly nice and friendly. The hotel staff (at the now demolished Christmas Tree Inn) treated me like royalty! As did the folks at the diner across the street. If someone were going to dump a diabled child off somewhere, God forbid, I’d say they couldn’t chose a better place than Caryville, TN.
Did ya wonder?
July 11th, 2012
2:56 pm
So I am sure that all of you horrified people are quite willing to take in a 19 year old disabled ADULT with the mental capacity of a toddler. Any takers?
Thought not.
As for the mother, dumb move on her part. But she probably had few choices. States are not so willing to help when adults have mental illness.
Remember…Matthew 7:1
Divine
July 11th, 2012
3:01 pm
Who leaves their child like this? I can answer that question and that is a person who never should’ve become a mother to begin with. She has another mentally handicapped child who will most likely be abandoned as well. I don’t understand how you cannot charge the mother, HELLO…the mental capacity of a toddler and not a 19 year old. I pray that this young lady can be placed with someone worthy of her presence.
Matty
July 11th, 2012
3:06 pm
Enter your comments here
Matty
July 11th, 2012
3:07 pm
well at least we know where her children get the mental disability from….
Jesus Christ crushes perverted NWO, DBMs
July 11th, 2012
3:08 pm
@NotYou– Amen!
NotSam
July 11th, 2012
3:09 pm
Special needs children and adults take a lot of work. Obviously this woman had more than she could handle. Where was her support system since not at her church? Where’s the father? She did what she thought was best, but decisions made while stressed are not always best. Luckily the daughter did not suffer at the hands of someone when left.
Jenna
July 11th, 2012
3:19 pm
I think this young woman is better off in the care of the state. You can criticize this mother all you want, but she did leave her daughter where she would have care and be tended to. That is more than some might have done. Do I think it’s right to abandon your child? Nope. But I haven’t walked in this woman’s shoes and neither have any of you. Tend to your own families and put as much effort into them as you have to the plight of this stranger and then you’ll have actually done some good with all the energy your instead spending on your righteous indignation.