Missouri Parents High On Meth Abandoned Infant Son at Courthouse Because 'They Were Going to Take Him Anyway'

A Missouri mother and father reportedly left their young son at a local courthouse, effectively abandoning him without adequate care, because they believed he would be removed from their custody anyway.

Jeremy Lamp, 36, and 31-year-old Jessica Lamp reportedly dropped their son off at the Livingston County Courthouse in Chillicothe without "any clothes, food or other infant care". This led to child neglect charges being levied against them, according to their probable cause statements filed in circuit court.

The Lamps had been at the same courthouse earlier in the day to undergo a drug screening conducted by a Missouri Department of Social Services investigator and its Children's Division.

"Jeremy's drug test came back clear but when she took a mouth swab of [Jessica] it came back positive for methamphetamine," the Chillicothe Police Department alleged.

The positive drug test provided impetus for the investigator to set up a "safety plan", which she explained to both Lamps.

"Jeremy denied the safety plan to have [Jessica] stay outside the house, have Jeremy and [the child] stay outside the house, or have [the child] stay with a relative," the Probable Cause Statement explains.

The social services investigator left the baby in their custody following their testing but the parents "left the courthouse without [their child]" despite the investigator informing them they "couldn't leave the baby with them."

The Lamps were then found and arrested at a medical center. Jeremy told law enforcement he was unhappy with the options provided by the court for his child.

"He said that Children's Division told him that they would take the child so he left [the boy] with them," Jeremy's statement says. "When [cops] questioned him about this he said, 'The way I looked at it was that, they were gonna take him anyway.'"