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MOBILE, Ala. (WALA) — The former daycare worker charged with leaving a five-year-old in a hot van for several hours then dumping his body pleaded guilty to manslaughter on Wednesday.
Valarie Rena Patterson (Photo: Mobile County Metro Jail)
Kamden Johnson was found dead on Demetropolis Road on the afternoon of August 21, 2017. A group of children discovered the body as they walked home after school.
Johnson was last seen by family members when they dropped him off at Community Nursery and Preschool on Hillcrest Road. The child never made it to school that day.
Kamden Johnson (Courtesy: Family)
Investigators believe employee Valarie Patterson mistakenly left Johnson in the daycare van on the last morning of his life. When she went to pick children up from school that afternoon, she found his Johnson dead inside and decided to dump his body on the side of the road, detectives said.
Patterson entered a blind guilty plea on the manslaughter charge and will learn her sentence in January.