NEW CASTLE, Va. (WDBJ) – A Virginia State Police trooper saved a 21-month-old child from injury after seeing the toddler on a busy road, according to VSP.
“I could not have a child to have brought home on Friday. I could have gotten a completely different call, and news could have been down here for a completely different reason,” said Angel, Letchford, the toddler’s mother.
Letchford dropped off her 21-month-old son, Briar, at Craig County Daycare just after 9 a.m. She thought he was safe. But less than two hours later, she got an alarming call.
“My child could be hurt. My child could be dead. My child could have been kidnapped,” said Letchford.
Friday, March 14, 2025 at 10:30 a.m., while working traffic enforcement in the town of New Castle in Craig County, Senior Trooper C. Viera-Cintron noticed the child walking toward the middle of Salem Avenue/Route 311, according to police. Viera-Cintron pulled the child from the road.
After checking with nearby homes, police say Viera-Cintron went to a nearby daycare facility, where it was determined the child had left his teacher from an area in the back of the daycare.
Briar’s family says they were told by the daycare that he wandered away from his teacher through a gate that had been accidentally left unlocked.
“Anything could have happened with this. They didn’t even know he was gone until the state trooper brought him back,” said Letchford.
The family is questioning some of the information being shared about the incident. The daycare told parents in a letter that Briar was gone for only three minutes, but in a release from Virginia State Police, the agency says Briar was missing around 11 minutes.
We reached out to the daycare, but the director declined to comment.
“They said he was gone for approximately three minutes, which we believe was probably longer than that. Just because he has to get out of the gate, get to the middle of the road. And we don’t even know which route he took because he wasn’t seen,” said Jamie Greenway, the grandmother.
The family is grateful to Trooper Viera-Cintron for saving Briar’s life. But they’re disappointed in the daycare’s response and say they no longer feel safe sending him there.
“How can you not want to be frontline addressing the issue? How can this not break your heart? This happened at your facility,” said Greenway.
Police say the daycare facility notified the parents of the child and relevant permitting agencies, while Virginia State Police and the Craig County Sheriff’s Office notified the Department of Social Services.
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