The Great Smoky Mountain Journal
Source: WVLT
Tuesday, January 01, 2019 02:46 PM
Baby Found Naked On Road Near Cocke County Community of Cosby
Officer Josh Hall and Lt. Chris Gregg responded to an area on Hooper Highway in Cosby, Tennessee where they say they found a woman, later identified as 35-year-old Tracy Lynn Garver and mother of the child, walking in the middle of the road with her one-year-old who was naked except for a soiled diaper.
"At this point in the morning it was still raining," Lt. Gregg said. "Wind was blowing really bad and it was storming just a little bit."
Lt. Gregg used his car to move Garver and the baby to a safer area off the road. According to a release from the Cocke County Sheriff's Office, Garver told Lt. Gregg to hurry and take her and the baby to the Cub Motel because an "airplane was coming to pick her and the child up."
Deputies said she claimed she had been assaulted, but the sheriff's office said she would not cooperate when asked by officials about the assault, and they later determined that no assault had taken place.
Instead, officials said Garver was high on drugs, had slurred speech, and was unsteady.
"Usually mothers are very protective of their children and this was a very big surprise to me to see a mother in that bad of shape," Lt. Gregg told Local 8 News reporter Robert Grant.
Garver was taken to jail and booked on charges of child neglect and public intoxication.
The Department of Child Services was notified, but, while law enforcement waited, Lt. Gregg wanted to help and asked Sheriff Fontes if he could take the baby home.
"He didn't deserve what he got this morning, but we tried to give him the best few hours we could," Lt. Gregg, a father of four, said.
Lt. Gregg and his wife bought diapers, clothes and a sippy cup to make the baby more comfortable. They cared for the one-year-old for about three hours, which allowed the DCS investigators to arrive on scene.
According to a news release, Garver was under the influence of narcotics, and the baby had potential exposure to narcotics.
It was a reminder to Lt. Gregg of the rampant drug epidemic, he said often rips children from their family's grip.
"The meth has probably been the biggest increase of taking children out of homes," he said.
Also a reminder that behind Lt. Gregg's badge is a father, who's instincts never clock out.
"A lot of people call it an extra step," he said. "Us? We call it what we do every day."
The child was not taken into immediate custody by the paternal family and was placed into DCS custody.