Sarah Hatfield, Thornton Mother, Accused Of Abandoning Children At Gas Station

Sarah Hatfield, a 25-year-old Thornton, Colo. mother, was arrested Saturday for allegedly abandoning her two young sons in a van at a gas station parking lot -- police found her wallet and keys in the van and found Hatfield nearly 12 miles away, hours later.

9News reports that gas station employees noticed the gold van around 1:30 p.m. on Saturday and didn't think much of it until an hour went by and the van was still parked in the lot. After a couple of hours, a gas station employee decided to check out the van and found the 2-year-old and 4-year-old boys still in their car seats, along with her car keys, purse and cell phone.

About ten hours after Hatfield went missing, she turned up at National Jewish Hospital in Denver -- a security guard called the police when he had found Hatfield near the hospital around 11:45 p.m. The hospital is nearly 12 miles away from the gas station where the van was parked, according to Fox31.

How the woman got to the hospital still remains a mystery because Hatfield's husband Matt told the police and 7News that Sarah has no recollection of the hours she went missing. "This is totally out of character," Matt Hatfield told 7News and went on to say that his wife "has never been arrested, never touched illegal drugs -- nothing about this makes any sense to anyone who knows her."

Early toxicology tests confirmed Matt's defense of his wife -- no illegal drugs were found in Sarah's system, according to 7News.

Sarah Hatfield is undergoing tests at Denver Health and her husband spoke to Fox31 saying that preliminary tests suggest that his wife may have suffered from a seizure which triggered a kind of amnesia.

Sarah appeared to have no injuries and did not appear disoriented when the police arrested her, but she complained of soreness all over body which left family members wondering if she had walked all the way from the Thornton gas station to the Denver hospital.

Sarah Hatfield remains in custody at Adams County Detention Center and faces child abuse charges.

Comments

[HannaSchmitz]

06:03 PM on 05/14/2012

Dr. Phil's lie detector said she was lying.

[cognitogrrl]

08:26 PM on 02/02/2012

Great news, everyone! Sarah Hatfield is back home with her family! Saw this on a CBS news link -- Note, she was examined at a different hospital than the one she was found wandering near, and apparently the initial charges have been dropped --

"Doctors at Denver Health Medical Center, where she was examined, say it is indeed a real condition that can cause unusual behavior and memory loss. Hatfield said it’s the only thing that could explain why she left her children, her keys, her wallet and her cellphone in the car and disappeared.

Hatfield and her husband Matt met with detectives and a social worker on Wednesday and received the news in the evening that she could return home to her children. Detectives will forward on her medical records to the district attorney, who will then decide if the case warrants any criminal charges."

So glad to hear this. I believe also that this was a one-time thing, and she'll be getting more help for those migraines and insomnia.

[Wombat 123]

06:54 PM on 02/02/2012

She should sue for false arrest. If doctors say she had a seizure them the police had no reasonable grounds to believe that she committed a crime. This is the same as charging somebody for having a stroke or heart attack. It is extreme misconduct by the police.

[Willow21]

02:05 PM on 02/02/2012

Sara Hatfield may have Transient Global Amnesia it can last from 10 to 12 hours and without any warning. It happened to a friend of mine two weeks ago and fortunately her husband was home at the time. He had no idea what was going on with her she didn't even know she had grandchildren. He got her to the hospital right away, she was kept overnight and was diagnosed with Transient Global Amnesia and was told this could happen again.
Sara should not be in jail, I think she is a good wife and mother who she should be getting the proper medical attention.

[aphunkyphish]

06:30 AM on 02/01/2012

Perfect example of how far back we are in treatment of mental/brain disease issues. A certain stigma still attached to these diseases of the mind and brain landed this lady in a detention center instead of a hospital for observation. We are a nation crying for adequate health care, yet we separate the mind and brain as if it is not a part of the human body. Insurance companies don't have to cover mental health services now that it is mandatory to cover these services if offered, at 100% instead of the formerly covered 50% for such services for treatment.We need more advance services, treatment and research for mental health and perhaps some new legislation on how these cases are handled. If the woman was found with an injury to any other part of her body, she would have been brought to a hospital before being charged.

[deerinmw]

06:25 AM on 02/01/2012

Could have been a petit-mal seizure - where a person seems to act okay but has no memory of what happened during the time of the seizure - which can last hours. Not as dramatic or obvious as a grand-mal seizure, it is still in the epilepsy family.

[John Lebro]

05:55 AM on 02/01/2012

With all these young mothers killing their kids. Now they will read this, and use it in their defense when their kids are found dead. Or not found at all.

[Jason Fairchild]

05:31 AM on 02/01/2012

Good job cops, even if you have a seizure and loose your memory, it is cause for arrest, why do we need doctors, the cops now have medical degress.

[factorystock1]

07:39 AM on 02/01/2012

You are guilty until proven innocent now adays.

[Suohrabi Smith]

05:05 AM on 02/01/2012

Who me? I was abducted by the aliens!

[Donald Height]

04:53 AM on 02/01/2012

defective hippocampus' the region of the human brain that records memory. it's tied into a primitive fee or fight response,
example the mouse the escapes the owl is terrified but soon returns to foraging. the ability to selectivly block trauma would be awsome. rapes forgotten years of therapy erased. but sadly we can't choose what the hippocampus records,

[jrev2020]

04:43 AM on 02/01/2012

It's amazing how if this story was written differently how many people would want her tarred and feathered (or kept in jail). Though since it's written in sympathy of the family and with the the fact that people can suffer brain/health problems. We can understand that many people don't mean to do something hurtful and that anyone could need treatment. Everyone on this planet could use healthcare of some sort. Wow...what a concept. We should fight for that right.

[tccat4]

04:42 AM on 02/01/2012

This just goes to show that not every mother just leaves her children and runs away. If it was a seizure, she could have forgotten everything, including, who she was. I hope everything turns out ok for the family.

[factorystock1]

06:41 AM on 02/01/2012

I was thinkin' the same thing.

[tccat4]

07:03 AM on 02/01/2012

With all the finger pointing, I guess a few of us are smart enough to hope there has to be a medical problem.....

[Minnielee]

04:40 AM on 02/01/2012

Yeah, about like I don't remember deliveriing mine.

[anitafeeney]

04:39 AM on 02/01/2012

ok was this abandonment or is she really in need of a neurologist and a brain scan what it comes down to is either she is lying or she is in serious need of help

[Seanaci]

04:22 PM on 02/01/2012

I know this woman personally. Her oldest son and my son go to school together. She is a good momma...she would NEVER do anything to hurt the boys. When you see her with them...you can tell how much she loves them and cares about them. She is one of those momma's who would gladly take a bullet for her kid if it came down to it. So she is NOT lying. She is in need of help. And her family is currently seeking that help through doctors at the local hospital she's been at most of the week. There are also small details left out of this story that you aren't hearing. 1) She's been suffering from migraines & insomnia for the last 6 months (and she has been trying to see a sleep doctor about it) and 2) there is a LOT going on in their lives that they are choosing not to divulge to the media and rightly so; so that stress compounded with the migraines and insomnia have made her brain/body out of whack. I pray for the entire family every day that they can find answers as to what made her do something like this.

[anitafeeney]

09:08 PM on 02/01/2012

ok i will take your word on it then she needs help the only reason i said what i said is i did not feel i had the facts so i couldnt say for that she was lying or not and i am not a medical doctor so i could not say she needs medical attention although i know that the brain is a tricky thing and we dont know alot about it and there are medical conditions that can cause problems i hope its a thing that can get taken care of and that all she needs is meds as for the migraines i suffer those too they are horrible and i am chronically sleep deprived would she try a chiropractor for the migraines ?

[anitafeeney]

09:09 PM on 02/01/2012

its also nice to see that there are people who stick up for their friends she is lucky to have you

[runsheeprun]

04:34 AM on 02/01/2012

So glad it wasn't during the heat of summer. She may be sleep deprived. She appears to have dark circles under the eyes. Very glad the children are safe and hope they help her instead of charging her.