A day after she surrendered to Chicago police, an Olympia Fields woman was charged Sunday afternoon with leaving her 6-year-old son at the Taste of Chicago last month, police said.
Marie Campbell, 29, was charged with one count of felony child abandonment, Chicago police spokeswoman Monique Bond said. Campbell is scheduled to appear in court Monday for a bond hearing.
Campbell turned herself in to police about 11 a.m. Saturday, after authorities spent more than a week searching for her without success. Her son’s story has drawn local and national attention.
On June 30, the opening day of Taste of Chicago, Campbell is alleged to have directed the boy to go to the “lost children” tent.
The boy initially wandered the festival, but he was spotted by patrol officers, who took him to the tent.
When the festival closed hours later, his mother had not returned, police said. Authorities spent more than a week trying to find her.
After a hospital examination the next day, caseworkers say they found signs of physical abuse, and authorities placed him in the care of the state Department of Children and Family Services.
According to records reviewed by the Tribune, the agency has had contact with Campbell three times since 2003.
On June 30, workers discovered “three loop marks on his thighs” the boy said had come from “his mother hitting him with an extension cord.”
In 2003, Campbell called the state child-abuse hot line, warning she was at her wit’s end and did not want to hurt her child, according to the records.
The boy also alleged corporal punishment that year, which led to the boy entering foster care while his mother attended parenting classes and counseling, according to documents.
He was returned to her in September 2004.
A year later, the boy was found home alone at night in a filthy apartment, officials said.
The state enrolled the mother in classes to help her with housekeeping and parenting, and conditions improved, workers found.
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alwang@tribune.com
