UPDATE: Charges have been filed for the father of the infant who was found alone in a ditch in Troy near Franklin Road and Guyton Road on Thursday.
Zachary James Phillips, 25, has been charged with endangerment to a child. His bond was set at $500,000.
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Authorities say they have found the 11-month-old boy in Troy off 317 and Franklin. He is being checked out by EMS.
Bell County Sheriff's deputies, Troy PD, and DPS troopers began searching an area south of Moody mid-morning Thursday after DPS got a call about an abandoned vehicle in the middle of the road near the intersection of Franklin Road and Guyton Road in northwestern Bell County. When the DPS trooper arrived on scene, he found the vehicle with the doors open and no one inside.
The trooper found a phone number and called it. The mother of the 11-month-old boy answered and told the trooper that her husband was supposed to take her son to daycare in Belton. A short time later, a car pulled up with two men inside, one of which was Phillips. Authorities report he said something bad happened and he was looking for his son.
The Bell County Sheriff's Office says the child was last seen about 5 a.m. with his father, Zachary James Phillips.
Phillips told the DPS troopers on scene that he was being chased, so he took the child out of the car and hid him in the mud and brush.
The child was found alive in a ditch around 11:30 a.m. about 100 yards from where the car was abandoned. A Bell County K-9 found the child with the scent from a car seat. The child was found covered in mud with bites and minor scrapes.
The father, Zachary James Phillips, has been taken into custody by the Bell County Sheriff's Office for questioning. He has pending charges of child endangerment.
The mother is at Baylor Scott and White in Temple with the 11-month-old boy and is being questioned by authorities.
