Mother Abandons Children: $9.1 Million Bond Set
A $9.1 million bond has been set for 25-year-old Aaliyah Jack after she allegedly abandoned her two kids, leaving them both to die, according to the Calcasieu Parish Sheriff’s Office.
The body of Jack’s four-year-old toddler was found last week in a lake behind a Louisiana Welcome Center along the Texas state line. Investigating officers were told the child named Legend was last seen alive with his mother and one-year-old brother, Kingtrail, the weekend before.
After announcing a warrant for Jack’s arrest, the mother was found in Mississippi without her youngest son. While police were still searching for her baby, Jack was first charged with failure to report a missing child.
The next morning, a driver spotted a baby crawling in a ditch along the interstate. The child would quickly be identified as Jack’s youngest son, Kingtrail. He had reportedly been abandoned two days prior but was able to survive harsh incoming weather from Hurricane Beryl, according to officials.
“This kid spent two days out in the weather on the side of the highway,” Calcasieu Parish Sheriff Gary Guillory said during a press conference. “Thank God that trucker seen him.”
Jack’s charges were upgraded to include second degree murder and cruelty to a juvenile while she continued to be held in Mississippi. She does not have a criminal history. Although there were no obvious signs of foul play, an autopsy to determine Legend’s exact cause of death is ongoing and will determine the next steps in the case against Jack.
Jack’s mother, Conswella Jack, told the Acadiana Advocate she had been helping her daughter care for the two boys after Aaliyah was struggling financially.
On the morning of Conswella’s own mother’s repast, Jack showed up to her mother’s house and took the boys. This was the last time Conswella saw her grandchildren before her daughter was arrested.
After repeatedly calling her daughter with no success, Conswella said Aaliyah texted her a picture of a “car in some bushes that kind of looked like it was wrecked,” she said.
A heartbroken Conswella told the Acadiana Advocate “I just buried my mother, and now my grandson? And he’s only 4 years old. Legend was so sweet and just lovable.”
Kingtrail has been placed in state custody, but Conswella wants to fight for legal guardianship. “Now I have to fight for my grandson. It’s stressful because they’re gonna put me through all what I’m about to go through just to get him back,” Conswella said. “I don’t even have the funds for it, so I have to do everything I can to get that baby back, because ain’t nobody know him like we know him.”