Background: Police search a lake near the Louisiana Visitor Center in Vinton, Louisiana in July 2024 (WDSU). Inset: Aaliyah Jack (Meridian Police Department).
After his 4-year-old brother was found dead in a lake, a 1-year-old child left out in the elements for two days was found crawling toward a highway by an eagle-eyed trucker in Louisiana. A local sheriff dubbed the surviving tot a “miracle baby” — and now, the children’s mother is under arrest.
Lake Charles, Louisiana, resident Aaliyah Jack, 25, is charged with failure to report a missing child and is currently detained in Meridian, Mississippi, by the Meridian Police Department.
She could face additional charges since police have said an investigation is still unfolding. She is expected to be extradited to Louisiana. A $300,000 bond has been set by the judge who issued a warrant for her arrest.
According to a statement from the Calcasieu Parish Sheriff’s Office, deputies were dispatched to the Louisiana Welcome Center near the Louisiana-Texas border in Vinton after receiving calls about a body found in a lake.
The body was eventually identified as Jack’s 4-year-old son after police were notified by a family member that the deceased child had last been seen with Jack and his 1-year-old brother on July 6.
Local law enforcement agencies were warned to be on the look out for Jack after an arrest warrant was issued but it wasn’t until July 9 around 9 a.m. when deputies said they received a call about a baby spotted in a ditch on the I-10 Interstate headed east.
The Calcasieu District Attorney’s Office did not have comment for Law&Crime when reached by phone on Thursday.
Calcasieu Sheriff Stitch Guillory spoke at a press conference this week after the 1-year-old was found and said that an autopsy would be performed on the 4-year-old since it was unclear if he had drowned or if he was dead before he ended up in the water, according to the Louisiana Radio Network.
Guillory grew emotional during the press conference aired by New Orleans NBC affiliate WDSU. The 1-year-old survived for two days on his own and amid stormy weather due to the effects of Hurricane Beryl making landfall in Texas.
“We look at this 1-year-old as our miracle baby because he was still alive,” Guillory said, choking back tears, later adding: “Thank God that trucker seen him.”
He added that the “the crazy part” was that the storm had provided cloud cover and rain, keeping the heat down.
“And we honestly feel that helped him to survive these last two days out there,” Guillory said, the Louisiana Radio Network reported.
Online court records were not yet available as of Thursday. It is unclear if Jack has retained an attorney and no motives have been discussed by police publicly.
The surviving child was sent to a local hospital and since been released into state custody after receiving treatment.
In an interview with the Acadiana Advocate, the boy’s grandmother Conswella Jack said she had no idea why her daughter may have harmed the boys. She said her daughter had fallen on hard times of late, and that she and other family members had stepped in to help.
Conswella Jack told the outlet that she last saw her daughter in Louisiana on July 6. Conswella Jack’s own mother had died and a funeral was underway. The two had met that Saturday but by Sunday, Aaliyah Jack had fled with the boys.
The woman said she tried calling her daughter over and over but to no avail. Finally, she received a text.
“She sent me a picture of a car in some bushes that kind of looked like it was wrecked. I was confused, so I called, called and called, and could not reach her,” she told the Advocate.
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