Couple Allegedly Moved Out of Apartment While Woman’s 12-Year-Old Son Was at School, Without Telling Her

NEED TO KNOW

• A Texas couple allegedly moved out of their apartment without telling the woman’s 12-year-old son, abandoning him

• Erica Renee Sanders and her boyfriend, Keven Dwyane Adams, allegedly left the “completely sterile” home on October 17 while the boy was at school.

• Both Sanders and Adams were arrested and Sanders was charged with felony child neglect.

A Texas mother is accused of packing up her entire apartment while her son was at school and moving out without telling him.

Erica Renee Sanders has been charged with felony child endangerment after allegedly moving out of the Copperas Cove apartment where she and her 12-year-old son were staying while he was at school, without informing him, according to a complaint obtained by PEOPLE. Local media KWTX was the first to report the news.

The high school student’s principal alerted Copperas Cove Police Department officers to the situation around 5:18 p.m. local time on Friday, Oct. 17, after the 12-year-old boy, getting off the school bus to go home, saw “his family packed up, moved out and left him there,” according to the complaint.

The “furniture and other household items” that had been in the apartment when the young man left for school that Friday morning were gone, according to an officer’s account of events. The officer, who described the unit as “empty” and “completely desolate,” said the boy confirmed that “the apartment was not like this when he left.”

While police were at the home, a neighbor told officers that Sanders and her boyfriend, Keven Dwyane Adams, had a “history” of kicking her son out of the apartment. One of the responding officers echoed this and stated that there was a “history of discord” between the couple and the child, according to the complaint.

The boy also told officers that the couple had stated that they were “moving at some point,” but had not told him when. Adams later told police that his girlfriend “had not abandoned” his son, “but that she was now living with him and (his son) was not welcome in her home,” the complaint states.

Sanders said her brother, her son’s uncle, was supposed to pick her son up from school, but she refused to provide officers with contact information or any additional information about the man, according to the complaint. Adams then told officers he was going to pick up Sanders’ son and take him to his uncle, but “several hours” passed with no attempts to retrieve the child. Officers also contacted the uncle’s girlfriend, who said she was unaware that she was supposed to retrieve the high school student.

Officers took the 12-year-old boy to the Copperas Cove Police Department and alerted Child Protective Services (CPS), according to the complaint. After a conversation with Sanders and Adams, CPS told officers to release the child to Adams, who had refused to provide the couple’s new address. Police had to check water company records to find the residence.

The Texas Department of Family and Protective Services did not immediately respond to PEOPLE’s request for comment.

Finally, around 9:20 p.m. the same day, Adams took custody of the child at the home, but told one of the officers that he would not take him if he had a warrant for Sanders’ arrest. He also “complained at length about the 12-year-old boy,” the officer said.

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Both Sanders and Adams were arrested and the case “has been referred to the prosecutor’s office for review,” a spokesperson for the Copperas Cove Police Department confirmed in a statement to PEOPLE.

Sanders has since been charged with intentionally abandoning a child under 15 without intent to return, a third-degree felony in Texas, according to court documents.

Read the original article on People