Couple Allegedly Moved Out of Apartment While Woman’s 12-Year-Old Son Was at School — Without Telling Him

A Texas woman is facing felony child endangerment charges after allegedly packing up her apartment and moving out while her 12-year-old son was still at school — without telling him.

According to a criminal complaint, Erica Renee Sanders vacated her Copperas Cove apartment while her son was at school, leaving him unaware of the move. Local outlet KWTX first reported the incident.

Police were alerted around 5:18 p.m. on Friday, Oct. 17, after the boy’s school principal contacted the Copperas Cove Police Department. The child had discovered, upon getting off the school bus, that “his family packed up and moved and left him there,” the complaint stated.

When officers arrived at the apartment, they found it “empty” and “completely barren.” The boy confirmed that the furniture and household items still had been there when he left for school that morning.

While investigating, a neighbor told officers that Sanders and her boyfriend, Keven Dwyane Adams, had a “history” of kicking the boy out of the apartment. One of the responding officers noted a “history of contention” between the couple and the child, according to the complaint.

The boy said that the couple had previously mentioned moving “at some point,” but had never told him when. Adams later told police that Sanders “had not abandoned” her son, but that she was living with him now and that the boy “was not welcome in his home,” the report stated.

Sanders reportedly told officers that her brother — the boy’s uncle — was supposed to pick him up from school, but she refused to share the man’s contact information. Adams said he would go retrieve the child and bring him to the uncle, but several hours passed without any attempt to do so. When officers later contacted the uncle’s girlfriend, she said he had no idea he was expected to pick up the boy.

Police took the 12-year-old to the Copperas Cove Police Department and notified Child Protective Services (CPS). After a conversation with Sanders and Adams, CPS instructed officers to release the boy to Adams, though he refused to give them the couple’s new address. Investigators eventually located it using water utility records.

At approximately 9:20 p.m. that evening, Adams accepted custody of the child at the new residence, but reportedly told an officer he would not take the boy if Sanders had an active warrant. He also “complained at length about the 12-year-old,” the officer wrote.

A spokesperson for the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services later confirmed that the boy and his five siblings have been removed from their parents’ custody and placed in foster care.

Both Sanders and Adams were arrested, and the case has been forwarded to the prosecutor’s office for review, according to the Copperas Cove Police Department.

Court records show that Sanders has been charged with intentionally abandoning a child younger than 15 without intent to return, a third-degree felony under Texas law.