Boy left at airport is son of Nate Webster

TAMPA - A 31-year-old Brandon woman was released from jail today after she was accused of leaving her 10-year old boy - the son of a former Tampa Bay Buccaneer - alone with no money or cell phone at Tampa International
Airport for 90 minutes last week.

Martine Lifleur, of 2526 Cherrywood Hill Drive, Apt. 206, was charged with one count of child neglect, a third-degree felony. She was booked into the Orient Road Jail with bail set at $2,000, but on Wednesday, a judge released her without having to post bail.

The child's grandmother, his father's mother, said that her son is Nate Webster, former linebacker with the Buccaneers who last season played with the Denver Broncos.

He is a free agent now and lives in Cincinnati, said his mother, Linda Webster. Her grandson, Nathaniel Webster III, currently is staying with him and his wife, Jennifer.

"She made a mistake," Webster said this afternoon outside the jail, waiting for Lifleur to be released. "She realizes that. As a family we will work it out."

It was a miscommunication between her and Lifleur, she said. Lifleur was supposed to come by her house and Webster was to have driven her to the airport, dropped her off and then watched her grandson last week, she said. But Lifleur never showed up for the ride.

In the scramble to catch the flight, "It was a bad judgment call by the mother," Webster said. "Why would she leave him at the airport unattended?"

Airport police arrested Lifleur, who listed her occupation as a physician's assistant, on Tuesday morning when she got off a flight that originated in Fort Lauderdale.

The child was not overly traumatized by the experience, said Christine Osborn, a spokeswoman for the airport.
"Everyone who came in contact with him said he was a very sweet boy, well mannered, calm and collected," Osborn said. Being left alone got him a little upset, she said, "a little concerned."

Lifleur brought her son with her to the airport on the night of Sept. 1, Osborn said. She told police she had stopped by the child's grandparents' home to get them to drive her to the airport, but they were not home. So, she drove herself and parked in the short-term parking garage.

She brought the child to the terminal, gave him the keys to her car and told him to wait for his grandmother to pick him up.

"She last saw him around 9 p.m.," Osborn said.

The child waited at the airport as his mother boarded the shuttle taking her to the airside, Osborn said. Lifleur then caught a Spirit flight to Fort Lauderdale.

The boy waited about 90 minutes, and no one came to pick him up.

Finally, he walked to an information kiosk and asked whether someone could call his family. That's when airport police were called.

Officers called an aunt, who said she could come and get the boy. Officers also called the Florida Department of Children & Families, which gave police the authority to turn the child over to the aunt, because she is a blood relative.

While all this was happening, Lifleur landed in Fort Lauderdale, and that's when she finally reached the boy's grandparents about picking him up, Osborn said. By then, the aunt had already picked up the child.



(tbo.com)