Mom who went missing with boy pleads guilty, must register as violent offender

A Randolph County woman charged with aggravated battery of a child after she went missing for several hours with her 2-year-old son near Marissa last November has pleaded guilty.

Sarah N. Donley, 29, of Sparta, was sentenced to 30 months of felony probation by Judge Zina Cruse. As part of her probation, Donley must attend a parenting program, comply with the Department of Children and Family Services and an order of protection. She also will be required to register for 10 years as a violent offender against youth.

Donley also pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge of endangering the life or health of a child. She was sentenced to 24 months of probation, which will run concurrent with her felony sentence. Donley also was sentenced to 43 days in jail and given credit for 43 days already served.

Deputies with the St. Clair County Sheriff’s Department were called to an area near coal mines in southern St. Clair County near Marissa on Nov. 7. Donley and her son were found seven hours after they had been seen getting into a boat and going across a small body of water to another piece of land and into a wooded area.

According to the complaint filed in Donley’s case, Donley knotted a rope around one or more extremities and the neck of the boy, causing ligature marks or linear scrapes and bruises on the neck and body of the boy. The misdemeanor complaint said Donley took the boy “in a boat on a lake and outside for at least six hours, clothed only in a diaper, with a rope knotted around one or more extremities and/or neck of the child, and when temperatures were below 60 degrees Fahrenheit.”

According to National Weather Service archives, the temperature fluctuated between 45 and 48 degrees during the time when Donley and the boy were missing. The boy was treated for injuries that were not considered life-threatening.

Donley was charged two days later. St. Clair County Sheriff’s Department Investigator Scott Toth credited a Randolph County Road District worker with helping save the boy.

“The worker reported that Sarah sounded distraught and made some disturbing comments to him,” Toth said during a Nov. 9 press conference. “This could have turned out very differently had that worker not seen Sarah and her child.”

Donley originally was jailed on $30,000 bail.

This story was originally published January 19, 2017 at 5:44 PM with the headline "Mom who went missing with boy pleads guilty, must register as violent offender."