AUSTIN (KXAN) – An Austin mother has been charged with child abandonment after her 3-year-old was found wandering a northeast Austin road Thursday night.

According to a police affidavit, a woman driving in the 9600 block of Teasdale Terrace around 9:17 p.m said she had spotted the young girl in the road. She told police she

Jessica Espinosa child abandonment booking photo (APD photo)

originally thought what she saw was the shadow of a dog crossing the road and had nearly hit it. When she got out of her car to help the child, the child reached in a motion to be picked up.

Officers arrived within five minutes and noticed the child was partially dressed, barefoot and wearing a filled diaper. The child also has a large bruise in the middle of her

forehead that police determined was recent. Officers called paramedics to tend to the child.

Nearly half an hour after police made contact with the child, Jessica Espinosa, 27, came out of a nearby home and said the girl was her daughter. Officers said she was fidgety, had a short attention span and would ‘space out’ and stare. Officers determined she was on something.

Espinosa told police she had been resting and her four children were taking care of themselves. The officers determined the ages of the other children to be one, six and 11-years-old. Officers said she did not know what her children had been up to that evening.

Espinosa was booked into the Travis County Jail on $150,000 bond.