Mother 'left toddler in car with dead body while she took drugs'



Jessica Ockman, 33, was arrested after her son was discovered in a car with the body of her best friend

A mother left her 20-month-old son in her car along with a dead body for more than an hour while she went to take drugs, authorities say.

Jessica Ockman, 33, of Metairie, Louisiana, was arrested for child desertion and drug related charges after she allegedly left her son with the body of her best friend at a gas station on Friday morning.



Ockman was taken into custody after service station employees found her unconscious in the restroom around 9am. She was found with a lighter and a spoon.



Col John Fortunato, spokesman for the Jefferson Parish Sheriff's Office, said her car was parked next to one of the fuel pumps and when employees approached it, they found her son along with the body of 22-year-old Shelby Fleming of Lafourche Parish.



She was pronounced dead at the scene. Her cause of death is unclassified pending the outcome of toxicology tests but Ockman is not being charged in connection with her death.



Investigators have said was not the result of a criminal act.



Deputies found Ockman unresponsive on the restroom floor along with a lighter and a spoon, Col Fortunato told The Times Picayune. They also recovered a white plastic box containing marijuana that she'd thrown into a nearby garbage can.



The toddler was taken to a local hospital for evaluation. Neighbours say he is now with relatives.

A former roommate told WDSU that she was forced to throw Ockman out of the apartment they shared together.

She said: 'For a while I thought it was terrible if he (her toddler) would be taken away by the state. But now, I don't know …that's terrible.'



Ockman was booked at the Jefferson Parish Correctional Centre with child desertion, obstruction of justice, possession of marijuana and possession of drug paraphernalia.

WDSU went to the home where Ockman was said to be living, where neighbours said she showed up a couple of days ago claiming she was homeless and asking for money.







