Suburban Chicago girl left behind on school bus, with mom having no clue where she was
EVERGREEN PARK, Ill. (CBS) -- A southwest suburban school bus driver was facing charges Friday, after police said she left a child on a bus – leading to a search and a missing persons report.
Arturia Edwards said she came to a local park to pick up her daughter, 9-year-old Eva Bailey, from her after-school program – only to be told her daughter was not there.
"So then I went back to the daycare center where she does her transportation services at," said Edwards. "So when I got there, wherever the case may be, they were pretty much like, you know, shocked – but, you know, keeping it to themselves, basically. They didn't really give me no information about where my kid was, and they was like, you know, pretty much beating around the bush about it."
Edwards went to her daughter's school and asked numerous other people where her daughter was – but was not able to get information. An alert went out, and police were contacted.
Officers eventually learned Eva had been picked up from school by the 61-year-old bus driver – who was supposed to drop her off at an after-school program.
But police said the bus driver fell ill, and ended up driving home instead. Around 2:57 p.m., the driver went home and into her house in the 8700 block of South Washtenaw Avenue, leaving the little girl alone on the bus, police said.
At 3:13 p.m., the driver left her house, got in another car, and left, police said. More than an hour later, another women exited the house and opened the door of the bus. At 4:28 p.m., the driver returned home and appeared to be looking for Eva.
Edwards was distraught before she finally got a call about where her daughter was.
"It felt like I was dying every second. It felt like the life was getting sucked out of me. It was just like, come on now," Edwards said. "You've got to tell me something. You can't leave me in the dark, like, this is my kid."
Sitting next to her mother, Eva said she was "scared" during the ordeal.
Eva was finally found in the 8800 block of South 55th Court in Oak Lawn at 4:47 p.m. – nearly two hours after the ordeal began, police said. She had gotten off the bus and started walking.
The driver – Keitheia Adkins, 61 – is charged with endangering the life of the child.
"It was wrong at all levels," said Edwards.
