Inset: Ashley Gibson (Monroe County Jail). Background: The corner of E. 3rd Street in Bloomington, Indiana where Gibson was arrested (Google Maps).
A 29-year-old woman in Indiana has been arrested after she allegedly boarded a city bus carrying a rolling suitcase with a 2-year-old child zipped inside, explaining that it was an effort to “keep him warm.”
Ashley N. Gibson was taken into custody last week and charged with one count of felony child neglect and one count of misdemeanor criminal recklessness, records reviewed by Law&Crime show.
The incident took place aboard a Bloomington Transit bus on Dec. 12, 2024, according to a report from Bedford, Indiana, radio news station WBIW. Shortly after Gibson boarded the bus, the driver realized there was a child inside the woman’s suitcase, pulling the bus over near West 3rd Street and immediately calling 911.
Upon arriving at the scene, officers with the Bloomington Police Department reviewed surveillance footage from inside the vehicle and reportedly discovered that Gibson boarded the bus at 1:43 p.m. and sat near the front of the bus, meaning the toddler had been zipped inside of Gibson’s suitcase for at least 18 minutes.
Speaking with one of the responding officers, Gibson allegedly confirmed that the child was 2 years old and explained that she had intentionally kept him inside of the closed suitcase because she was trying “to keep him warm,” Indianapolis Fox affiliate WXIN reported. However, the officers found the explanation peculiar, noting that the child was wearing a puffy winter jacket with long pants and appeared properly dressed for the cold weather, which reached a high of about 37 degrees Fahrenheit.
Pressed further as to why she would zip a toddler inside a suitcase, Gibson reportedly told officers that she had spoken to her family caseworker about it and the caseworker “told her it was okay to do.”
A probable cause affidavit obtained by The Herald-Times stated that police recommended Gibson face criminal charges for “placing [the victim] inside of a suitcase, zipping it up and placing [the victim] in a situation that endangers his life or health.”
Police took Gibson into custody and transported her to the Monroe County Jail for processing. She made her initial appearance in court on Tuesday where she was reportedly represented by a public defender and entered a plea of not guilty to both charges. A judge ordered her to be released on her own recognizance provided she abide by a set of conditions set by the state’s Department of Child Services, per the Herald-Times.
Online court records show that Gibson is currently scheduled to appear in Monroe County Circuit Court on March 9, for a pretrial conference. A jury trial is slated to begin on April 23.
If convicted, Gibson faces a maximum sentence of 2 1/2 years in prison.
