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Mother Charged After Toddler Found Outside In Snowstorm

JEANNETTE (KDKA) -- A 23-year-old woman is facing charges after her toddler was found wandering outside in a snowstorm, while she was allegedly passed out inside her Jeannette home.

Trisha N. Sperry is charged with child endangerment, reckless endangerment, possession of a controlled substance and possession of drug paraphernalia.

Police were called to Chestnut Street around 2 a.m. Sunday when Sperry's son was found outside crying, knocking on the door of a nearby home.

Officers said the temperature was around 34 degrees.

Someone passing through the area picked the boy up, noticing his clothes were soaked and he was shaking.

That good Samaritan told police they looked into Sperry's home and saw the woman passed out on the floor. When Sperry answered the door, she reportedly seemed groggy.

The woman took the child to a nearby home because she did not think Sperry was in the right state of mind to care for the child.

When officers arrived, Sperry told them she has been cleaning the kitchen and that she wasn't sure how her son got out of the house so fast.

Police reportedly found crack cocaine, marijuana, painkillers, a stamp bag of heroin, and a package of Suboxone strips inside her purse.

Neighbors said they are not surprised.

"We just think she care more about pills than her kid," one person, who did not want to be identified, said. "Almost a year we've lived here, and we've witnessed like all the cars coming in and out of her house, we obviously knew she was up to something."

KDKA spoke to Sperry's mother off-camera. The woman said she did not know her daughter was doing drugs. She insisted that Trisha is a single mother who works as a caregiver, and that she is a good person.

This is a developing story, stay with KDKA and KDKA.com for more.

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