Background: Location in Doral, Fla., where the 9-year-old son of Melissa Luckett was discovered (Google Maps). Inset: Melissa Luckett (Miami-Dade County Corrections and Rehabilitation).
A Florida woman is accused of child neglect after her nonverbal son was found by himself, which her father said was “extremely abnormal.”
Melissa Marie Luckett, aged 31, secured her release with a $5,000 bond following her arrest on Saturday. This came after her neighbors reportedly found her 9-year-old son alone. An arrest report reviewed by Law&Crime indicates that a woman out for a morning jog on Saturday noticed the boy clad only in a diaper, “running barefoot” close to the road near a secured neighborhood. As the child continued toward the road, the neighbor attempted to intervene but soon noticed that he might have special needs and was nonverbal, according to police reports.
The police informed the Department of Children and Families, who arrived at the scene to assume custody of the child. Once Luckett was identified as his mother, an inquiry showed that she was last caught on a Ring camera leaving her residence the previous night at 9:35 p.m. Her last conversation was with her father at around 11:00 p.m. that night.
Luckett was seen returning to her home on Saturday at around 3:00 p.m. wearing different clothes.
As per the report, officers spoke to Luckett’s father, who was anticipating the visit of his daughter and grandson to his home in Virginia. However, they never showed up.
Luckett’s father mentioned that his daughter and grandson were inseparable and always stayed together. He explained to the police that her actions were “extremely out of character,” causing him to worry that “something serious might have happened.”
Police said that Luckett’s father planned to fly to Miami to take custody of the boy and assist with the investigation.
On Saturday, Luckett was taken into custody and interviewed by law enforcement. The details of her statement were omitted from the police report. She faces one charge of child neglect without serious harm and secured bail on Monday. Her court appearance is slated for November 19.
