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Two people from Tennessee face kidnapping charges by the federal government after a 2-year-old boy was abandoned in a Mississippi Goodwill depot.
Child welfare workers took custody of the boy who was left at Southaven Goodwill on Monday morning with a change of clothes and a note saying “abandoned child … no phone number for mom”.
Local media said the boy’s name was Sergio.
ABANDONED BOY IN MISSISSIPPI GOODWILL PROMISES CHRISTMAS GIFT GIVING, EMPHASIZES CHILD VIOLENCE IN PANDEMIC
Mugshot for Jeremy Fitzgerald, 34. The image shows Sergio, 2, after being abandoned Monday at a Goodwill depot in Mississippi.
(Shelby County Jail / Southaven Police Department)
In a lawsuit filed Thursday in Federal Court in Memphis, the FBI accused Jeremy Fitzgerald, 34, and his girlfriend Turlisca Turner, 29, of taking the child and driving him from Memphis to Mississippi.
The complaint indicates that the boy’s mother, Antoinette Smith, told officers Fitzgerald took her child after refusing to work for him as a prostitute in Nashville.
She said she called Fitzgerald several times to get her son after dropping her off in Nashville, but he did not respond, according to the complaint.
Smith’s sister then called Fitzgerald and during the conversation he asked for money for the boy’s return.
BOY, 2 YEARS OLD, ABANDONED AT MISSISSIPPI GOODWILL DEPOSITS WITH ADDITIONAL CLOTHING, NOTE IDENTIFIED; SUSPECT ARRESTED
“Turner knew that Fitzgerald had demanded money in exchange for the child’s return,” said US Attorney D. Michael Dunavan of Memphis.
Turner was apprehended on Monday wearing the same clothes as in the Goodwill surveillance video, prosecutors said.
Fitzgerald was arrested after crashing the brown vehicle he and Turner were in as they drove away from the Goodwill after dropping off Sergio, they said. He was seen on video at Goodwill wearing a mask and holding Sergio’s hand.
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The boy was unable to tell the police his name after being abandoned.
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