Authorities arrested a 37-year-old woman after three children left home alone tested positive for methamphetamine.
The incident started on March 9, when a Southside teacher called the Independence County Sheriff’s Office requesting a welfare check on the children.
Authorities went to the home and discovered two of the children alone. The oldest child said their caretaker, identified as Melissa M. Henley age 37 had been in Branson since March 7th according to court documents. The child also stated they had not been in school for six days but another child had gone to school that day.
The affidavit states the child said Henley and her boyfriend “were doing drugs” and continued stating there were “smoking pipes and a bag with white stuff in it” in the woman’s bedroom.
All three children were removed from the home taken to Arkansas Children’s Hospital in Little Rock for hair drug tests. Court documents show all three tested positive for methamphetamine.
This week an Independence County Circuit Court judge found probable cause to charge Henley with three counts of introducing a controlled substance into the body of another person.
Henley is being held in the Independence County Detention Center on a $100,000 bond.