A woman from Carmen is facing an additional charge in Alfalfa County involving the welfare of her juvenile son. The Aug. 31 edition of the Newsgram reported that Keshia Dawn Cunningham, 35, of Carmen, had been charged on Aug. 26 with child neglect, a felony, and with contributing to the delinquency of a minor, a misdemeanor.

On Sept. 22, Cunningham was charged with desertion and/or abandonment of a child under 15, a felony. This crime is punishable by imprisonment in the state penitentiary for any period of time not less than one year or more than ten years.

Information in the case states that between March 1 and March 28, Cunningham abandoned her minor child by willfully neglecting or refusing to maintain or provide for said child, to-wit: failure to maintain a home with running water or utilities, leaving said child at home without supervision for several days; failure to give said child medical care.

According to documents filed in the case, the charges are based on interviews with the minor child and neighbors cited in the Aug. 31 story as well as a later interview with another Carmen resident and his son. On Sept. 19, Alfalfa County Sheriff Rick Wallace interviewed a man and his son who said the son was a friend of Cunningham’s minor child. They stated the minor child, under age 15, lived with them from March of 2022 to June of 2022 because he did not know where his mother was.

They reported the boy would wear the same clothes for weeks, that he used their washer and dryer to wash his clothes. They said he only took a bath at their house since there was no running water at his home. They also said he did not get a home-cooked meal except when he ate at their house. The juvenile friend of the boy said he saw Cunningham run at her son with a pole-like thing that had a ball on the end of it and nearly knock him out.

A bench warrant has been issued for Cunningham on the new charge.