The woman accused of kidnapping a 5-year-old boy earlier this month had used methamphetamine, fentanyl or both before taking the boy, court records show.
Tra’Veon Lewis’s mother reported him missing on Thursday, May 2, when his mother couldn’t find him outside their Southeast Portland apartment. Police reviewed area security footage and spotted the boy with a man and a woman. Later that night, police asked for the public’s help finding the boy.
The woman alleged to have taken the boy, LeeAnne Obsorne, 31, and the boy spent the night outside, Osborne later told police. Early the following morning, May 3, a woman on her way to work saw the boy and Osborne and reported the sighting to police. Osborne was arrested, and the boy was taken to a hospital for a medical check.
Osborne told police she had talked to the boy before Thursday and given him candy, according to court records. She further told police that, the day of the alleged kidnapping, the boy wanted to go to a store to get some food and drinks, and that Osborne told him to ask his mother if it was OK.
She said she thought he did check with his mother.
The woman and the boy went to a nearby convenience store and a gas station, and she bought him snacks. She then took him to another store to buy him “a container of slime,” she told police, then had trouble figuring out how to get back to the boy’s apartment after transferring buses.
By that point it was getting cold and dark, Osborne told police, so she took the boy to a school and built a fire. The two were walking down a street the following morning when police arrested her, according to court records. Osborne also told police she regularly uses methamphetamine and fentanyl, and that she “had used hours before picking up” the boy.
While police originally said two people were suspected in the kidnapping, a subsequent timeline of events provided by police made no mention of the male suspect.
Osborne has been charged with second-degree kidnapping and second-degree custodial interference. Her bail was set at $50,000, according to Multnomah County jail records.
“Although [Tra’Veon Lewis] was returned unharmed, he was transported on and off public transportation, exposed to other adults who use substances, and forced to sleep outside on a cold night,” Deputy District Attorney Robin Skarstad wrote this week in a request that Osborne not be released on bail. “His physical safety was at risk and, but for the heroic actions of agencies from TriMet to the FBI and alert citizens, this may have ended very differently.”
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