UPDATE:Tamatha Parker was expected to turn herself in to authorities sometime this afternoon, but as of 4 p.m., there was no sign of her at city police headquarters.
Parker is charged with two counts of felony child abuse for shutting her children inside a car trunk in the Central Park Wal-Mart parking lot. City police spokesman Jim Shelhorse said she also might face additional charges.
The children, both 5-years-old, are still with their mother as far as police know, Shelhorse said. Two police jurisdictions checked two addresses where there were possible sightings of Parker today, Shelhorse said, but she was found at neither.
Police received a phone call last night from a woman claiming to be Parker, who said she would surrender sometime after 2 p.m. today.
- fredericksburg.com
By KEITH EPPS
Wayne Ingersoll said he had no intention of doing any police work when he stopped in Fredericksburg over the weekend to have his camper repaired.
The New Hampshire police officer said that changed when a woman came up to him in the parking lot at the Central Park Wal-Mart Saturday. She told him two small children had just been placed in the trunk of a car parked next to him.
Ingersoll stopped the driver as she was backing out of a parking spot and made her get the children--both 5--out of the trunk. He then provided information to city police that resulted in charges against the woman.
Being a police officer had little to do with his reaction, said Ingersoll, who was back at work yesterday in New Hampshire.
"I don't think any reasonable adult would have done anything differently," Ingersoll said. "The dangers of children being in a trunk like that are obvious, especially on such a hot day."
Tamatha Parker, 33, of Quantico is charged with two counts of felony child abuse. She was not taken into custody at the scene, police said, in part because the children were getting upset about the possibility of their mother going to jail.
City police spokesman Jim Shelhorse said that when police this week went to Quantico to serve warrants on Parker, she was gone.
"I don't know if she's planning to come back or not," Shelhorse said. "All I know at this point is that she's a fugitive."
Ingersoll is an officer with the Sandown Police Department. According to its Web site, it has a chief, a sergeant, a corporal and six officers.
Ingersoll said he had been on vacation in South Carolina and stopped in Fredericksburg for the repairs. He said he spent the night in the camper in the Wal-Mart parking lot.
He had no idea anything was amiss, he said, until the concerned passer-by alerted him to the children in the hot trunk.
He said he ran toward the compact car as it was backing out and identified himself as a police officer. He told the driver she needed to show him what was in the trunk.
Another adult was in the car and four children on the back seat, Ingersoll said.
He said the driver initially denied having children in the trunk, but then untied the rope that was holding the trunk shut and let the children out.
The woman told Ingersoll and city police that she was punishing the children for misbehaving inside the store, authorities say.
He said the children didn't seem overly upset until city police Officer Johnny Wright arrived and began questioning the mother.
"It was almost as if they were used to being in there," he said.
Shelhorse said Parker told police that she was not going to leave the parking lot with the children in the trunk, but was going to only scare them.
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