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One moment your 3-year-old is just feet away, content and playing happily with other children outside. You turn your back to tend to his infant sibling just inside the house and when you glance back to check on the toddler, he’s gone.
Any parent would experience gut-wrenching panic during a situation like the one described, as did the mother of a toddler who went missing just after sunset Friday evening, February 5, 2010.
Phoenix police Officers Scott Holloway and Brian Webster responded to the residence near 29th Street and Fairmont Avenue where the toddler’s panicked mother explained what had occurred. When she saw that her son was gone from the enclosed courtyard, she searched for him without success and then called police.
The officers quickly searched the area and after talking to some of the kids and other residents in the complex, learned that a woman had been seen walking away from the area—she was holding the hand of a little boy that matched the toddler’s description. With this news, Officers Holloway and Webster scoured the businesses along Indian School Road.
“During the 35 minutes the child was missing, our two-man search party grew with the addition of responding officers; we had an elevated sense of urgency and all came together to get the job done,” explained Officer Brian Webster.
Webster’s hunch was right. He spotted a woman walking with a little boy who appeared to be the child they were searching for. The boy’s Spiderman shirt matched the description.. During the next moments, all involved witnessed a very happy reunion between two scared parents and a little boy who no doubt wondered what all the excitement was about.
Officer Scott Holloway smiled, saying “I got to be the one to tell the child’s distraught parents that their little boy had been found—it was a really wonderful feeling and the best moment in my three years with the department!”
The woman with the child was identified as Ronda Williams, 50, a known methamphetamine user. She told police she lives in the same complex and had gotten into a fight with her roommate. She walked out into the courtyard where the toddler was playing with other children and asked the child if he wanted to go to the store with her and get some candy. The toddler’s parents were new to the complex and did not know Williams who had been doing drugs the night before and that day. Williams was booked into jail for custodial interference.