A Kent police officer helped locate a missing child reportedly living in unsafe conditions after a tip from a local man experiencing homelessness, according to the Kent Police Department.
On April 16, Patrol Officer Munoz was conducting extra patrols on the west hill of Kent, an area he frequently checks.
During his patrol, an individual flagged him down and reported seeing a small child living in a tent with a woman in a nearby wooded area.
The man said the child’s living conditions were “unsanitary and unsafe” but didn’t have specific names or descriptions.
Officers conducted a thorough search of the wooded area, checking tents and speaking with people nearby. They eventually found someone who reported seeing a child in the area the previous day.
The officers then located a tent containing baby products and diapers, with a man standing nearby. The man was initially uncooperative but eventually admitted a woman had brought a child to the tent “a while ago,” although he claimed the child was no longer there.
The man’s description of the woman matched the person Officer Munoz had previously encountered at an apartment complex.
When officers returned to the area, they found two Child Protective Services (CPS) caseworkers in the parking lot—also searching for the same woman and child following a complaint earlier that morning.
The officers and CPS reviewed surveillance video from the apartment building, but the woman was not seen entering the premises. With no leads left, Munoz decided to search further.
Believing the woman was on foot and hadn’t traveled far, he began driving along Pacific Highway South, checking bus stops and shelters.
Eventually, he spotted the woman walking along the road. When he approached her, she admitted to being the child’s mother and explained her recent history: after being kicked out of housing in Tacoma and then from a friend’s home in Des Moines, she ended up living in the tent about a week earlier.
She said CPS had tried reaching her with offers of support, but she had been ignoring them.
The woman told officers she had dropped her baby off with a friend in Kent earlier that day so she could look for work.
She admitted to using drugs daily but denied using them in front of her child.
Police found the child at the friend’s residence and confirmed the child was not injured, despite having spent several nights in the tent. CPS placed the child with a stable family member. The mother was arrested and booked for child neglect.
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