Citation: Man charged with child abuse after 3-year-old found wandering alone in Richmond

RICHMOND, Ky. (ABC 36 NEWS NOW) — A man was arrested Sunday evening after a toddler was found “walking in the roadway wearing only a diaper” on Mt. Rushmore Drive in Richmond, according to an arrest citation.

The citation reveals that the Richmond Police Department was dispatched to an apartment complex on Mt. Rushmore Drive, where a toddler was found “playing in a puddle” near Red House Road and kept “going back and forth from the road to the grass.”

According to the citation, witnesses told police they made multiple attempts to get the toddler away from the roadway but were unable to get the child’s attention.

The citation details that the toddler’s father, identified by police as Timothy Hill, arrived on the scene in a vehicle and informed officers that the child was 3 years old and non-verbal, autistic.

According to the citation, the child had been unsupervised for nearly 25 minutes and had traveled around 600 yards.

Hill, according to the citation, told police that the child had escaped through a window while he was in the bathroom and “had been out of the home for only five minutes.”

After further investigation, officers asked Hill for permission to “inspect the apartment unit,” and he consented but reportedly rushed from the scene to his apartment, according to the citation.

The citation states that an officer witnessed Hill park his vehicle and run inside the apartment, without removing the child from the vehicle.

According to the citation, Hill was inside the apartment for nearly 20 to 30 seconds before opening the door.

While speaking with Hill, the citation notes that officers observed Hill “slurring his words, he was sweating profusely, and his pupils were dilated,” and admitted to police to “smoking marijuana.”

According to the citation, officers got a search warrant for the apartment, where they found marijuana hidden in a shoe organizer, a plastic baggie with a crystal substance, and a glass pipe under Hill’s bed. Additionally, officers located a plastic baggie in a basket next to the bed with five pills inside.

As a result of the search warrant, Hill was arrested and charged with the following, according to the citation:

• first-degree criminal abuse of a child 12 or under;
• tampering with physical evidence;
• first-degree possession of a controlled substance (methamphetamine);
• third-degree possession of a controlled substance (drug unspecified);
• possession of marijuana;
• buying or possessing drug paraphernalia.

He was booked in the Madison County Detention Center.