EUNICE, La. (KPLC) – A Eunice woman is facing multiple charges after she allegedly left her son on the side of the road in the middle of the night and reported him abducted, according to the St. Landry.

Artasia Viges, 24, was arrested on the following charges:

• Cruelty to minors
• Child abandonment
• False swearing for the purpose of breaching public health safety

Around 1 a.m. on Nov. 5, Viges reported her son was abducted by people in an older model truck while he was fixing a tire on the side of the highway, according to the sheriff’s office. When deputies arrived, they learned the child was found in the parking lot of a clinic with scratches on his knees.

The child told deputies his mother “knocked him over” and left him on the side of the road, according to investigators. The child was taken to the hospital for treatment and juvenile detectives were called from the St. Louis Parish Sheriff’s Office. Landry to investigate. .

“A subsequent interview with Artasia Viges revealed the terrible truth; there was no abduction and a young child was left unattended along a major street and allowed to run off into the night,” the sheriff’s office said in a news release.

A disagreement between Viges and her son escalated and he threw a tantrum, deputies said. While stopping, the child got out of the car before it stopped, which injured the boy’s knees.

Viges chose to leave the child out of the car and allowed the child to flee in the darkness along the freeway, according to the sheriff’s office. Viges admitted to detectives that he did not try to follow him and eventually lost sight of him.

Viges was arrested in St. Landry. Her bond is set at $200,000.

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