EagleTribune.com, North Andover, MA

Merrimack Valley

Mom flees cops, leaves kids

Published: October 20, 2007

ANDOVER — With a dog leading a search in the pouring rain, police last night captured a wet and allegedly intoxicated Haverhill mother hiding in the woods after abandoning her crashed car with two young children inside.

“She told me, ‘Get your dog away from me,’ and that she doesn’t like dogs,” said officer Mick Connor after police ended a half-hour hunt, which at one point also involved use of the Fire Department’s thermal imaging cameras.

“We found her about 75 yards in the woods where she had buried herself with leaves,” said Connor, who is the town’s canine officer and handler of Niko, a German

shepherd.

Police were holding Misty Maciejewski, 27, of 83 Broadway, Haverhill, on $20,000 cash bail last night in the lockup at the Andover Police Department, pending arraignment in Lawrence District Court on Monday.

Maciejewski was charged with operating after suspension of her

license — third offense, two counts of leaving the scene of a motor vehicle accident, operating to endanger, two counts of reckless child endangerment and two counts of child endangerment while operating under the influence.

“I don’t know why a mother would go out drinking and leave two kids in the car, and then put them in danger by driving drunk and then leaving them in the car on a rainy night,” Andover police Lt. William MacKenzie said last night.

“Doing this with a 2-year-old girl in the car. That’s ridiculous,” he said.

For Maciejewski, who also goes by the name of Misty Moiser and is believed to have been a former Londonderry, N.H. resident, this was the third time she has been arrested on drunken-drinking charges. She had previous arrests in North Andover and New Hampshire.

MacKenzie said other charges may be filed against the woman, who also was wanted on a warrant out of the Rockingham Sheriff’s Department for suspected endangerment of a child.

Maciejewski was taken to the police station for formal booking last night after initially being transported to Lawrence General Hospital.

What initially began as a routine police call escalated into something more serious in less than 10 minutes.

“Someone from the Ninety Nine (Restaurant & Pub) called and said an intoxicated female left the premises and on the way out hit two cars,” MacKenzie said of the call received at 7:41 p.m. The restaurant is on Lowell Street (Route 133).

Nine minutes later, police received a second call from an off-duty Lawrence police officer who reported a single-car accident on Bailey Road near the intersection of Haggetts Pond Road. There police found a white Nissan Maxima, the same make of the car leaving the scene of the hit-and-run incident at the Ninety Nine, off the road.

Police arriving at the scene found an 8-year-old boy and a 2-year-old girl inside the car. One of the fathers of the two children took the children home after police met him at All Saints Hospital in Lowell.

MacKenzie said police plan to notify the state Department of Social Services about the incident.

Soon after discovering that the driver had fled into the woods, police called in the Fire Department to assist with its thermal imaging equipment. With raw, rainy weather expected overnight, officials were concerned about the woman’s welfare, particularly the possibility of hypothermia if she fell asleep in the woods.

“With the temperature in the high 50s and when you’re wet like that, it’s a concern, especially with alcohol involved,” MacKenzie said.

“I wanted to make sure we didn’t leave her out in the woods highly intoxicated getting hypothermia. Then we’d end up with a missing mother in the woods all night,” he said.

“On a rainy, cold night, her body heat is going to show up on the (thermal imaging) camera. That’s why we had the Fire Department out there. But the dog found her,” MacKenzie said.

MacKenzie praised Niko and Officer Connor.

“Our dog is doing excellent work. He’s batting 1,000 in the searches. But the officer who works with him deserves a lot of the credit too,” he said.

MacKenzie also credited the Fire Department and the officers who worked under Sgt. Cecilia Blais with helping to avert a potential tragedy.

The investigation is not over though.

“We got to investigate why the Ninety Nine would let somebody leave highly intoxicated like that. There’s a penalty for that,” MacKenzie said.

Photos