FUQUAY-VARINA, NC (WTVD/CNN) – A single mom accused of leaving her two children by the side of the road says she left them near a school because she is tired and can’t raise them alone.
“I feel terrible about what I did,” Jennifer Westfall said. “I’ve always had my kids' back no matter what. I was just so tired. Absolutely tired.”
A police arrest warrant says Westfall left her kids, a 9-year-old and a 19-month-old, on the side of the road near Reedy Creek Elementary in Cary, NC, about 18 miles from her home in Fuquay-Varina, and then sped off.
Police said a woman taking her child to school witnessed the incident. She then picked the two children up and took them to the school.
School administrators alerted the school resource officer who in turn called Child Protective Services (CPS).
The mother, on the other hand, said that she drove into the school's campus, dropped her kids off, and watched a woman take them by the hand, which she thought was a legal way to abandon the children.
But, in North Carolina, only infants a few days old can be left with another adult for it to be considered legal.
CPS and Cary police investigated and decided to charge Westfall with two counts of misdemeanor child abuse.
"I know what I did was wrong but I just, I was so tired of doing this by myself. I have the strength to do what I need to do but I don't have the skills to make the income that I need to take care of my family, and nobody will hire me,” she said.
“I've been around everywhere. And with these charges I just don't see how I'm ever getting my kids back.”
Westfall was arrested at her home Monday.
She was released from jail Wednesday night and is due in court next month.
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