Father in jail after toddlers roam Poplar Bluff street

POPLAR BLUFF, Mo. -- The father of three girls, ages 2, 3 and 4, is in jail and the children are in temporary emergency foster care after a passer-by found the girls walking along Main Street at around 7:45 p.m. Friday.

Henry Smith, 27, of 510 N. Sixth St. in Poplar Bluff, was arrested on suspicion of three counts of endangering the welfare of a child. He is in the Butler County Jail and is scheduled to make his first court appearance Monday. Bond has not yet been set.

Smith, who has legal custody of the children, told police that he took the children to day care Friday morning as he usually does before going to work. According to assistant police chief Gary Pride, Smith said he came home early that day, but instead of picking up his children from day care, he began drinking.

He allegedly told Pride that when he drinks, he usually ends up binge drinking. Pride said Smith told him he drank "eight or nine beers" between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m.

Pride said that Smith, realizing that he was too drunk to care for the children, offered a 12-year-old neighbor $10 to look after the girls when his brother dropped the children off from day care at 6 p.m.

But the neighbor did not come. Smith told police that he can't remember anything past 7 p.m., when the girls were in the house playing. He reportedly admitted that he had not fed them, and said he did not realize the children were missing until police knocked on his door after 10 p.m.

Trying to cross

Pride said the children told police, employees of the Division of Youth Services and the Butler County Juvenile authorities that they were on their way to find their mother, who lives in Puxico, Mo. They had apparently walked several blocks along a busy street when the passing motorist saw them trying to cross the street and realized they were not being supervised.

"They were cold and shivering and wet because we were having a light rain," Pride said. "It was dark at that time."

Pride said the children were scantily clad; one little girl was wearing only a T-shirt. Two were barefoot.

The passer-by called police and Pride said officers went door to door asking residents if they knew where the children belonged. No one did. The children were unable to tell officers their parents' names, other than "mom" and "dad," or where they lived.

"They were hungry, cold and thirsty," Pride said. "We brought them to the police station and gave them food."

After several hours of waiting for someone to call about the children, Pride said police began to worry that perhaps something tragic had happened to their parents, so they contacted KFVS12 and asked them to post photographs of the children on the 10 p.m. newscast.

"In no time, calls started coming in," Pride said.

Police and state authorities are now investigating the family situation, Pride said, to determine where the children need to be permanently placed.

lredeffer@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 160