A 2-year-old was found wandering in the woods by herself on a cold, blustery night. The alarming scene unfolded at 3 a.m. in Texas. The whole ordeal was caught on camera. The child’s mother and grandmother were arrested and charged with child endangerment after the discovery.
Surveillance footage shows the exact moment a toddler ventured out into the woods in the middle of the night. On Friday, the girl was found “wearing only a dress and no shoes.”
Bexar County Sheriff’s Office revealed how they received a “deeply concerning call” at 6 a.m. A San Antonio resident made the call to report the incident. According to a report by the Express US, Haley Peoples, the girl’s mother, called in to report that her daughter was missing in the early hours of the morning.
The search for the missing toddler began at 7:20 a.m. “With temperatures in the 40s, this little girl faced potential life-threatening danger at that hour,” the official announcement from the authorities read. Officers who arrived at the family home noted that it was in “unsafe living conditions.”
Law enforcement officials revealed that everywhere they saw there was “trash, soiled clothing, rotting food, rat droppings, and a heavy odor of urine.” The girl was “soiled” when she was found, and a medical assessment was carried out to make sure she was alright.
The girl’s mother allegedly declined to take the medical care or even to change her daughter’s clothes. The Sheriff’s office shared that following the incident, Haley was brought in and charged with child abandonment, endangerment, and imminent danger of bodily harm.
25-year-old Haley Peoples was arrested after a property owner found footage of her 2-year-old daughter wandering alone in the woods at around 3 a.m. –> https://t.co/Za050Js2Bg pic.twitter.com/kaUNvGh3cb
— News 4 San Antonio (@News4SA) December 9, 2025
A bail of $50,000 was paid to get her out of the Bexar County Jail. “Due to the hazardous conditions, refusal of medical care, and the severe risk posed to the child, deputies detained Peoples,” officials shared in a statement.
Rebecca Kelly, the child’s grandmother, who had fled the scene, was also arrested soon after. She was charged with obstructing the abuse-and-neglect probe. Court documents reveal that she got out of the same jail after paying a $7,500 bail.
Kelly is being accused of showing up at the elementary school where Haley’s three other kids attended. She tried to pull them out before the school day ended so that she could tell them exactly what to say to the authorities when they got interrogated. She did this in an attempt to save her daughter from prosecution.
