ST. CLOUD, Fla. — The Department of Children and Families said they will work with an Osceola County mother so she can keep custody of her toddler, who she said wandered away from her through a hole in the fence.
The DCF took the 2-year-old boy Tuesday night from his mother, Amanda Terrell, who has already lost custody of two other children.
The child neglect charge was dropped on Wednesday. Even so, Judge Daniel Dawson did not return custody of the child to Terrell or the boy's father. The boy continues to live with Terrell’s cousin.
The parents will have supervised visits with the boy for now, and they had to take drug tests before leaving court. The judge scheduled mediation next month to decide whether the parents will get the boy back.
Two weeks ago, a witness spotted the boy wandering around near a busy highway in just a diaper.
WFTV showed up to Terrell's St. Cloud home on Tuesday, but she made it clear she didn't want the camera crew there.
"Don't judge a book by its cover. You don't know me. I don't know you," yelled Terrell.
“You see that (expletive) hole right there? That's how he got out,” Terrell told WFTV cameras.
St. Cloud police and DCF investigators said they know Terrell well. The most recent incident came after a dispatcher got a 911 call when a driver found the woman's baby boy wandering toward busy U.S. 192.
Police said the boy got out of a fenced backyard where his mother left him alone while she cleaned the house.
Police arrested Terrell on child neglect charges on June 5, and she tested positive for drugs, but still, the mother kept custody of the child for two weeks while officials investigated.
"We typically don't remove children right away unless there is an egregious fact or a case," said DCF official Carrie Hoeppner.
DCF has investigated Terrell at least three times before and even took her two other children. Still, investigators said it wasn't enough to remove the child until they finally made their move on Tuesday night.
"So when they take him from you, what do you think about that?" WFTV reporter Kenneth Craig asked Terrell.
"Um, are you a [expletive] therapist? I don't need to share my feelings with you," replied Terrell.
A court review is scheduled for November.