Inset: Lucia Victoria Marie Cruz (Bexar County Sheriff”s Office). Background: Texas State Highway 211 where Cruz’s daughter was allegedly found walking alone (Google Maps).
In Texas, authorities recently detained a woman after she instructed her young daughter to make a 19-mile trek to school by herself, following an evening of consuming alcohol. This incident, as reported by the state’s law enforcement, has drawn significant attention.
Lucia Victoria Marie Cruz, age 35, faces charges of abandoning or endangering a child with the potential for imminent harm, as per the Bexar County Sheriff’s Office.
The event unfolded on a Wednesday morning across several suburban routes and a bustling four-lane highway in San Antonio.
A concerned onlooker noticed the girl, who is under 12, walking solo about a mile from her residence, according to a report from the sheriff’s office shared with the San Antonio Express-News.
The child was eventually located on State Highway 211.
“It’s incredibly busy with all the traffic,” a neighbor shared with San Antonio’s ABC affiliate KSAT. “Seeing a young girl walking down 211 is just nonsensical.”
The witness said the girl was trying, for the life of her, to stay off the road itself but cactuses and brush forced her closer and closer to the passing cars, authorities said.
The child said she tried to wake her mother up after Cruz had passed out from drinking a bottle of wine following an argument with her boyfriend the night before, according to the sheriff’s office.
The mother, however, only briefly roused, allegedly denied her daughter a ride to school, told her to walk there by herself, and then went back to sleep, law enforcement alleges.
So, the girl started walking.
The distance between the child’s home on Orpheus Way – which is located on the Far West Side neighborhood of the Alamo City – and Peggy Carnahan Elementary School is more than 19 miles. Making that trip on foot would take about seven hours, according to Google Maps.
The witness eventually picked up the girl, who shared the information with resource officers. The witness and the girl then met with law enforcement; the girl revealed that she did not even have a cellphone to use in case of an emergency, the sheriff’s office said.
Deputies then arrived at Cruz’s residence to speak with the defendant and her boyfriend. The woman allegedly said she was aware that her daughter was walking to school, according to law enforcement.
Later that day, the girl’s father went to the school and explained he has primary custody of his daughter but that she had been in her mother’s care at the time of the incident, the sheriff’s office said.
“My wife would kill me,” Cruz’s neighbor added. “My kids barely even walk down the street to take the bus, and I walk with them.”
The defendant was arrested and booked into the Bexar County jail on Wednesday evening. She was released early Thursday morning after posting bond, court records show.
