Girl, 4, found shivering along Merced River after mom shows up naked at quarry
A Merced woman was arrested after allegedly leaving her 4-year-old daughter on a bank of the Merced River for hours in the middle of the night when temperatures were in the 50s.
Authorities first learned the girl was missing at 12:30 a.m. when her mother showed up naked at a quarry at the end of Shaffer Road, about seven miles north of Atwater, according to California Highway Patrol Officer Eric Zuniga. She told employees she’d been involved in a crash and left her daughter in the vehicle while she went for help.
The CHP responded to the quarry and spoke to the mother, 28-year-old Courtney Renee Hill, who said she left her child “somewhere”, but couldn’t give a location.
“She related that the child was left in a field and not in the vehicle,” according to a press release.
Additional CHP units responded to the scene, along with Merced County Sheriff’s deputies, Riggs ambulance crews and CAL Fire personnel to assist with the search for the child. A CHP helicopter crew also assisted.
“As the night went on, hopes for finding the child were diminishing,” reads the press release.
Three hours into the search, only CHP officers and an ambulance crew remained.
“CHP units made a last-ditch effort and went on foot down a steep embankment, crossed an approximately 700 yard orchard to where they came to the Merced River,” according to the release. “As the units did not have any other area to search, they were converging on one area, yelling out for the child, at which time they heard a faint ‘I’m here.’”
Scarcely visible behind the tall grass, officers spotted the girl sitting on drift wood near the shore on the opposite side of the river. They were more than five miles east of the rock quarry.
Officers crossed the river to get to the girl, who was cold and shivering but otherwise well and in good spirits, according to the CHP.
While the search took more than three hours, Zuniga said the girl had been out there alone for hours before the search even began.
They don’t know what time it happened but authorities learned Hill and her daughter had been involved in a solo vehicle collision on Amsterdam Road, near Youd Road, about 2.5 miles south of where the girl was found.
Immediately after the collision, Hill allegedly walked to the residence on Amsterdam Road and stole a 1997 Jeep Grand Cherokee, striking the garage at the residence before heading north, according to the CHP.
She drove north on Amsterdam for about one mile, then stopped the Jeep, got out, and began walking with her child in a northwesterly direction along a canal bank.
According to the CHP, the two walked 1.5 miles, traversing the canal, several fields, and crossing the Merced River.
“After crossing the Merced River, Hill put her child on the bank, told her to stay in that location while she went to look for help and left her child, wet on the river bank and in the dark,” reads the release.
Zuniga said Hill indicated she was naked when she got to the quarry because her wet clothes were torn when she had to climb over a barbed wire fence.
He said authorities suspect Hill had been under the influence of drugs or alcohol but “because of the time frame there were no specific signs of her being intoxicated” when she was finally evaluated.
Merced County Child Protective Services was called to assist with caring for the child, according to CHP.
Hill was arrested on suspicion of child endangerment, auto theft, hit and run and obstructing an officer.
This story was originally published April 29, 2020 at 10:57 AM.
