New Bedford Police: Woman Abandons 11-Year-Old Son in Mattapoisett

NEW BEDFORD - A New Bedford woman is accused of abandoning her 11-year-old son.

The investigation began after an 11-year-old boy called police from a Mattapoisett home. Police say the child walked to the house after his mother had left him alone on a dark road in the town Friday night.

During a joint investigation, police found the child's mother, 28-year-old Marina Johnson, at the House of Hope on Mount Pleasant Street in New Bedford with her 7-year-old son. As police began to question her, Johnson asked to put her son to bed, but instead escaped through the facility's back door with the child into frigid temperatures. She was soon found and arrested behind Simons Bath and Showroom on Mount Pleasant Street.

Johnson is charged with two counts of reckless endangerment of a child under 18 and one count of abandonment of a child under 18.

The Department of Children and Families have been notified and are investigating.