MILLVILLE, NJ--A New Jersey mom is accused doing the unthinkable to her son. Authorities say she abandoned the special needs 10-year-old in the woods, near a military base.
The mom's name is Debra Wisler. She was eventually found at the family home on Main Street in Millville by police, arrested and charged with endangering the welfare of a child.
After her little boy was found in the woods by a passing motorist, military police took him to the welcome center outside the gate at the joint base.
They fed him and asked him questions, and the little boy was on his game.
He told them he took a nap in the woods and woke up hungry, then proceeded to give police mom's name and phone number.
We also found her at home in Millville, but she wasn't interested in talking to us when we knocked. "Excuse me! The cops are on their way, so I ask you guys to leave, please leave the premises."
The family home sits right across from Blinker Custard, where employee Michelle Grabow said mother and son came by two or three times a week during the school year to get ice cream. "Honestly, she was a very nice lady, always polite and, as far as I could see, she was a good mom. Cause when I saw it on the Facebook, I was shocked."
Grabow says the 10-year-old is a special needs child who has attended nearby Silver Run school.
She adds Wisler seemed to handle him well. "What went through her mind to do something like that?"
According to a release from state police, when Wisler discovered that her son was not eligible for a child program at Joint Base McGuire Dix, she walked him into a nearby wooded area and left him there with only his luggage.
Neighbors were trying to figure out all of her actions.
"If it was close enough to the base then, I mean, she wanted him to be found. And it was a good thing that somebody actually saw him," said neighbor Anthony Miller.
"I can't imagine or see how a mother could leave her child anywhere, especially a small child at that," said neighbor Vanessa Jones.
The child is currently living in a temporary home.
Wisler is awaiting a court date.
