The parents of a 3-year-old child were arrested after the toddler was reported missing and later found in an illegal marijuana grow, according to the Butte County Sheriff’s Office.
The agency said the mother reported the child missing late at night on May 6 on a 51-acre parcel in the community of Bangor, about 70 miles north of Sacramento.
Deputies, a K9 team and search and rescue teams began searching for the child and determined that they had been missing since around 7:30 p.m. that same night.
The sheriff’s office said that detectives found evidence that the parents were cultivating marijuana on the property and that the child frequented marijuana grow sites with the parents.
A K9 team eventually led deputies to an illegal marijuana grow around 3:20 a.m. the next morning, where the child was found under a tarp, close to hundreds of marijuana plants, the sheriff’s office said.
The toddler was cold and required immediate medical attention, and after spending time at a hospital was released to Butte County Children’s Services, the sheriff’s office said.
The parents, both in their 30s, were arrested for felony child endangerment and officials later served a search warrant at the residence, where they found 6,674 lbs. of processed marijuana, 5,257 marijuana plants and four firearms.
The sheriff’s office did not specify if the parents will face charges related to those findings.
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