Toddler Escapes 2 Day Cares, Mother Asks How
MANKATO (WCCO) -- A Minnesota mother is demanding answers after she says her two year old, Ryker Hacker, walked right out of not one but two Southern Minnesota day cares, two days in a row.
Ryker Hacker's escapes back on Nov. 4 and Nov. 5 temporarily cost two providers their licenses, and this week one provider learned she will faces a criminal charge of misdemeanor child neglect in Blue Earth County courts.
"I don't know what was going on for 45 minutes with my son in the busiest area of Mankato," said Jackie Downing, of Nicollet, Minn. "This should not happen to any parent."
Downing says she landed a new job and brought her son to Mankato day care provider Rosemary Marquette on referral from a neighbor.
On the first day, Marquette said she turned her back to help another child when Ryker, who was sleeping on the couch, somehow wandered off. Marquette says she started to search for him on her own, as any parent would do.
But Mankato police reports say it was not Marquette, but witnesses who called 911 when they saw him wandering alone in four lanes of traffic. The report states that Marquette had not called 911, even after Ryker was missing for 45 minutes.
"He just looked scared sitting on the officer's lap," said Downing. "I broke down bawling."
The very next day, Jackie took her son to the Caring Arms day care near her home in Nicollet. She soon learned her son walked out of the doors for the second day in a row.
Caring Arms Director Sonja Shay says the day care called police and found Ryker walking towards home a short time later.
Downing says she thinks she knows why this happened two days in a row.
"He was under lack of supervision the previous day. He got an inch and took a mile," said Downing.
The Caring Arms day care tells WCCO that it didn't receive enough information from the parents about Ryker's tendency to run off.
"If he were a frequent runner, per se, we should have been held semi-accountable and informed her, but he never had this habit," said Downing.
The state shut both day cares down temporarily, and both have now made changes to their safety procedures as part of their conditional licenses, such as alarms and locks. Downing isn't sure that's enough.
"It's neglect, in the eyes of the law. It's neglect," said Downing.
Downing has been pursuing criminal charges for Marquette. This week, the Blue Earth County Attorney's Office charged Marquette with misdemeanor child neglect in connection with Ryker's escape.
She tells WCCO she has run a day care for 31 years without a problem, adding the criminal charge is one of the worst things that's happened to her.
