Authorities say a 5-year-old left alone with a toddler in a rural Alaska village carried the younger child half a mile to a neighbor's house in the bitter cold after the power went out.
Alaskan State Troopers recieved a request for a welfare check on the two children in the village of Venetie on Dec. 3. A community member called in after both children arrived.
According to the Associated Press, troopers chartered an airplane in order to reach the village and respond to the call. They found the 5-year-old child with an 18-month-old toddler. Temperatures in the interior Alaska village had dipped to 31 degrees below zero and both children suffered cold-weather injuries. The 5-year-old was only wearing socks and light clothing.
37-year-old Julie Peter was arrested and charged with one count of Endangering the Welfare of a a Minor in the First Degree after troopers investigated the incidient. Authorities did not say how Peter was related to the children. Peter is currently being held at Fairbanks Correctional Center.
