3-year-old boy found running on I-465

Motorists stop to help child who escaped his apartment; mother charged with neglect.
By Rob Schneider

Troy Crady figures guardian angels must have had something to do with sparing Damon Dyer. The 3-year-old, wearing only a diaper and T-shirt, was found running in the middle of the slow lane of northbound I-465 Saturday morning -- and an unaware Crady, speeding by in his 1-ton flatbed, easily could have run into him. If that had happened, the consequences would have been horrific.

"It would have been like taking a Chihuahua out with this big truck," the Indianapolis man said.

The boy survived unscathed, but for a few tense moments, at least a half-dozen cars and a big rig swerved into other lanes to avoid the barefoot child. Miles away, Senior State Trooper Cedric Merritt gunned his cruiser toward the scene on the city's Northwestside after calls came in on the State Police emergency line just before 9 a.m., reporting a baby on the interstate. When Merritt heard the first reports, the 12-year veteran could only think, "Wow."

The incident led to the arrest of the boy's mother on two charges of child neglect after Merritt found she wasn't aware that her son had slipped out of her apartment. The second charge related to the discovery of a second child eating spaghetti off the floor, police said. Officers said they also found trash in the apartment and feces on the walls. Before Merritt reached the scene, several startled motorists had stopped to help the boy. Crady, who drives the truck for his job at Garage Doors of Indianapolis, was running late for an appointment when he spotted cars and the semi ahead of him suddenly pulling out of the slow lane about a half-mile south of 56th Street.

"(The) semi was right behind him," Crady said.

The truck's driver had braked, and other cars moved into the left lanes to pass the semi. When Crady flew past, he looked to the right, and "there was this little boy just a-hoofing it down the slow lane barefooted." Like several other motorists, Crady stopped and ran toward the child. A woman wrapped him in a sweater because he was shivering, but otherwise "he was just happy-go-lucky," looking like "the world is a great place," Crady said. "He had no clue he came within a hair of losing his life this morning," said Crady, 41. "He had somebody looking out for him."

Hoping to find where the boy lived, Merritt, joined by Child Protective Services workers, went to the nearby Scarborough Lake Apartments. An assistant apartment manager directed them to the Dyer family's unit. Their arrival woke Nancy Dyer up. "Oh, he got out again," Merritt said she told him after hearing about her son's escape. Dyer, who moved here from Florida about six months ago, told police she doesn't hear the children after she falls asleep on their one bed and had last seen Damon and her daughter, Gabriel, 2, just after midnight. Dyer told police she often used boxes to secure the apartment's door because Damon is able to unlock it, Merritt said. Whether she did so Friday night was unclear.

Merritt said Indianapolis police earlier last week were summoned to the area after the boy was seen running around a parking lot near his home unattended. Police weren't sure how the boy got onto the interstate, but one of the motorists who stopped told Crady he had seen Damon climbing over a fence. Crady wondered how anyone could pay so little attention to a child. "He could have very easily just ended up as a bloodstain on I-465."

Hitting him "would have destroyed my life. I would never have been the same person again."