Clarksville, TN – The Clarksville Police Department says the back story behind Alana has many players involved, miscommunication and a smart child that opened a locked door.
There was a movie night at Alana’s grandmother’s house with several family members present including Alana, her brother, and mother. Normally, Alana would not stay overnight at the grandmother’s house but the mother had an appointment the next day and was going to be watched by a teenage family member who is considered very responsible and took care of Alana on other occasions without incident.
Alana’s brother stayed at another family member’s home. The other adults either had to go to work or had appointments.
The teenager who had been napping during the movie night activities, woke up, and was unable to sleep and stayed up until the early hours of the morning. When she went to bed, Alana was asleep in the bed with her.
The teenager is a heavy sleeper and either forgot or it was not communicated to her that she was babysitting Alana.
She woke around 2:50pm and was not aware Alana had gotten out or even the fact she was supposed to have Alana since the communication between Alana’s mother and the teenager had not been confirmed.
The other adults had already left for work or other locations where they were supposed to be. It is believed that Alana may have heard her mother leaving for her 9:00am appointment and ventured out to try and follow and opened the locked door.
It was very short time after that the good samaritan woman found the child in the roadway and police were called. Clarksville Police took care and custody of the child and began to try and find family members by canvassing the area, They were unsuccessful and Alana was transported to DCS.
When the found child’s photo was circulated, the child and parents were quickly identified and united with Alana.
After considering the totality of the events, no history or child related reports, the healthy condition of the child, the lack of intentional neglect, there will be no charges filed at this time.
