PIKEVILLE, Ky. (KNPS/Appalachian News Express) – A 16-month-old child who was taken from state custody in North Carolina by its biological parents was found safe during a traffic stop in Pike County.
According to the Appalachian News Express, KSP officials were notified by officials in North Carolina that the child may be with their biological parents Tommie Varner and Amy Adkins, formerly of Pikeville.
Adkins and Varner are the parents of the child, but the child had been ordered to be removed from its parents by the state. North Carolina officials pinged Varner’s phone to determine a location, they found he was at the Big Lots in Coal Run and then traveling on U.S. 23 near Ratliffs Creek, the citation said.
Troopers executed a traffic stop on a vehicle matching the description near on Ky. 122 at Robinsons Creek and a license plate scan showed the vehicle was registered to Varner.
During the traffic stop, the trooper made contact with Varner, Adkins and the child, who was sitting in a safety seat in the back seat of the SUV.
Varner told the trooper that he had not been contacted by a social worker from North Carolina and the last time he had spoken to one, he told them he was “leaving and would return home for a few days,” the citation said. Adkins stated that she knew “she wasn’t allowed around the child without being supervised” and that the state order had been “in effect for a while,” the citation said.
She told Charles that she is originally from Kentucky and that she and Varner “were coming to Kentucky to start over fresh,” the citation said.
