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
louise
July 12th, 2012
4:03 am
why is no neglect law to protect this woman.She should have left her at a hospital or police station for her safety. Why they don’t take the other one before it winds up on some other state door way dead or mamed. What church tells you to take your mentall ill child and leave them in harms way a bar. I would change my membership quick. And shame nyou Glenda God makes a way for all things he created
Breanna
July 12th, 2012
4:36 pm
Im from caryville and this is so sad at least she could have put her up for adoption instead of leaving her at a bar where drunks go. I mean she could have been killed or anything. shes blessed now though and with people that will take better care of her.
SNAFU
July 12th, 2012
4:50 pm
And the CHURCH told her to take the child to Tennessee! another religious whacko!! WOW..Just because she is an adult in age her mental capacity does not allow her to rationalize as an adult or even a child. The majority of the people today are bunch of selfish POS who expect others to either take care of them or the children THEY bring into this world. So now she is tired, well, she decided to bring this child in this world she needs to take the responsibility, oh, wait, no, the CHURCH told her not too!
LaTonya
July 13th, 2012
8:54 am
My heart goes out to her daughter. How could a church advise her to do that, a church is a place for healing, love and compassion. If they are true believers in Christ, they should have pitched in and given her the help she needed.
Norma
July 15th, 2012
7:52 pm
Enter your comments hereWhat kind of church sent her to Tennessee instead of taking on the responsibility biblically? We as Christians are admonished to take care of our widows and orphans. I would consider this young lady an orphan and the church where they came from should be ashamed of themselves.