Woman leaves kids at stranger’s home for hours, faces meth and child endangerment charges

Shanna Cunningham
Shanna Cunningham, 35, of Flippin, Arkansas, was scheduled to appear in Ozark County Court for a bond review hearing at 9:30 a.m. Tuesday, Dec. 17, before Associate Judge Raymond Gross, in connection with a case in which she’s charged with possession of methamphetamine and two counts of endangering the welfare of a child, all felonies.
She had been held in the Ozark County Jail on a $1,500 cash only bond since her arrest Dec. 9.
According to the probable cause statement, prepared by Ozark County Sheriff’s Deputy Josh Sherman, at 10:50 a.m. Monday, Dec. 9, the Ozark County Sheriff’s Department received a phone call from a man who said a woman was at his house in her car and was mumbling things and appeared to be under the influence of drugs or alcohol.
The man said that the woman had parked at the end of his driveway toward Highway 5 south. Not knowing who she was, he walked out to her vehicle and asked if she needed help. He said that she appeared to be distressed. He said she was mumbling, and it was hard to understand her, but he did hear her say that “my kids aren’t here,” the report says. He said he told her that he would be back at his house, and if she needed further assistance, she could drive down to the home, which was located a short distance from where she was parked. He said that he returned to his house and continued with his normal morning routine, but after a short time passed, he noticed that she had driven to the front porch area of the home and parked. He walked back outside and to her vehicle. He said that she was still mumbling, so he told her that he was going to take the keys out of the ignition of the car for both of their safety, as he was afraid she may crash the car on his property. Because of the bizarre behavior, he called the Ozark County Sheriff’s Department to investigate the incident further.
When Sherman arrived at the home, about 20 minutes after the call was first made, he found the woman inside her gray GMC Terrain, which was still parked in the driveway parallel to the house with the driver’s side door open.
The woman was laying forward with her head on the steering wheel, and when the officer approached her, she made little to no acknowledgement of Sherman’s presence or introduction. He asked what brought her there today, and she had an incomprehensible response and continued staring forward with a blank stare on her face. He asked if she knew how she ended up at that location, and she reportedly answered that she didn’t know how she got there.
Sherman escorted the woman to his patrol car, where he continued to try and ask her simple questions like, “Do you know where you started from?” and she said she could find out by getting her phone. He asked things like “Do you know where you planned to end up?” and other things she could verify from her driver’s license “Where do you live? Still in Arkansas?” Sherman noted that she was unable to answer the questions. When he asked for her Social Security number, she was able to relay it correctly.
Concerned with the report that she’d told the homeowner that her kids weren’t with her, Sherman attempted to ask her about what she meant by that. “She stared forward out of the windshield twitching briefly through her arms and head as she was looking forward,” he wrote.
He asked if there were drugs or alcohol in the vehicle that he should be aware of, and she reportedly started to cry. He asked if she would be able to pass a portable breath test (PBT), and she said she would pass it although she had smoked weed that morning. He asked if there was any methamphetamine in the vehicle, and she said “there shouldn’t be.” He asked permission to search the vehicle, and she provided verbal consent, the report says.
Sheriff Cass Martin supervised the woman while Sherman searched the vehicle. He reportedly found a black purse in the driver’s area of the car that included identification, credit cards, EBT card, various prescriptions in her name. Also inside the purse was a zip-top baggie with white crystal-like substance that Sherman recognized as methamphetamine. He ran a field-test on the substance, and it tested positive for the drug.
She was arrested and transported to the Ozark County Jail. Meanwhile, around 12: 30 p.m. that day, a caller from Highway 5 south called 911 and said that a woman had shown up with her kids earlier in the day and was having a hard time. She thought that the woman was possibly having a mental breakdown, as she was talking to herself. She said that the woman took off and left her kids at her house, and she’s not sure what to do.
Sherman and Deputy Lane went to the woman’s house where the kids were located and spoke with the woman who called 911. She said that a woman in a gray vehicle showed up around 5:30 a.m. with two young children in the back seat. She said that the woman wasn’t making sense, but that she was able to get her to tell her that her name was Shanna. She said she kept asking questions including, “Are you guys rich?” and “Where is the nearest gas station?” She also told the woman that people were following her.
The woman said she thought she might’ve been under the influence of something and attempted to help the woman by letting her park her vehicle there. She said Shanna stepped outside and was talking toward different areas, as if she was having conversations with imaginary people. She ended up leaving the house around 10:15 a.m. that morning to “go get gas,” and left the two children at the stranger’s home. After seven hours, Shanna hadn’t returned and the woman called the sheriff’s department. The kids told her that they have grandparents who live in Bull Shoals, Arkansas. Their father was contacted around 5:30 p.m., and was on the way to the sheriff’s department from Harrison, Arkansas, this week’s sheriff’s report says.