Background: The Copperas Cove, Texas, neighborhood where a boy came home to an empty apartment (Google Maps). Insets (left to right): Erica Renee Sanders and Keven Dwayne Adams (Copperas Cove Police Department).

Keven Dwayne Adams and Erica Renee Sanders were taken into custody on Friday after police in Copperas Cove received a report about the 12-year-old, who came home to find his apartment completely empty. The boy, identified as Sanders’ son, sought help from a neighbor and showed them the deserted home. According to an arrest affidavit accessed by local Fox affiliate KWKT, the boy mentioned to authorities that his mother and her boyfriend, Adams, had previously talked about relocating.

Reports from KWKT indicated that law enforcement managed to reach Adams and Sanders by phone. During the conversation, they claimed that the boy’s uncle was supposed to pick him up, but did not provide any contact details for the uncle. Eventually, police contacted the uncle, who stated he had no knowledge of such an arrangement.

When questioned, Adams reportedly expressed numerous grievances about his girlfriend’s 12-year-old son. The affidavit also revealed that child protective services reached out to Adams and Sanders to request their new address, which they declined to provide.

A neighbor who assisted the boy told police that there had been previous incidents where Adams and Sanders had expelled the boy from their home.

When the neighbor who took the boy in spoke with police, he said that Adams and Sanders had kicked the boy out of the house in the past.

Adams and Sanders were both charged with abandoning or endangering a child without intent to return. Law&Crime reached out to the Coryell County Sheriff’s Office to find out if Adams and Sanders were still in custody but did not receive an immediate response.