Indiana Woman Sentenced for Allegedly Abandoning Autistic Son

An Indiana mother accused of having abandoned her 5-year-old autistic son on a dead-end street in Ohio earlier this year has been sentenced to six months in a lockdown facility where she will receive mental health and substance abuse treatment.

Heather Adkins, 33, of Shelbyville pleaded guilty last month in Hamilton County Court to child endangerment. A kidnapping charge was dropped as part of a plea agreement.

Prosecutors said Adkins drove from Indiana to Tennessee in February to drop off two of her three children with a friend but on the way back abandoned her son on a dead-end street in Colerain Township near Cincinnati, about 75 miles (120 kilometers) from her home.