Father of missing boy accused of deprivation, cruelty

The father of a missing 6-year-old, who was found safe with relatives more than one day later, has been ordered to stay away from his son, a judge ruled in a court appearance Friday.

Investigators told Channel 2 Action News a family member in Barrow County picked up Andrew Ngalahom on Wednesday because they said the child’s father was intoxicated.

Clayton County Magistrate Court Judge Daphne Walker ordered Moses Ngalahom to pay a $25,000 bond and to refrain from having contact with his son, who is now in DFACS custody, Channel 2's Tom Jones reported from the scene.

The court hearing was where the Channel 2 leaed Ngalahom's son's poor living conditions in his roach-infested Riverdale home that also contained rotten food.

Ngalahom, who told the judge he was a single father that is unemployed, and struggling to provide for his son, explained he called police because his son had never done that before, suspecting that the child had left home.

The 55-year-old man is now facing deprivation and child cruelty charges, after the judge determined he was too drunk to remember that his son, Andrew, had been picked up by his aunt, who lives in Barrow County.  The situation prompted the father to call authorities and report that the boy had been abducted, which set off a massive search for Andrew.

More than 100 investigators from Clayton County, Fayette County and the FBI spent the afteoon Thursday canvassing the boy's neighborhood looking for him.
Channel 2 Action News cameras were there when police took Andrew’s father to the Clayton County Police Department on Thursday afteoon.  The child's aunt said she alerted police about Andrew's whereabouts when she saw the reports.

Neighbors said they last saw the boy playing Williow Drive near Riverdale around 2:30 p.m. Wednesday, although no one called to report the boy's disappearance until Thursday. Police did not say why the child's disappearance wasn't reported earlier.

Clifford Christian said he saw Andrew on the day he disappeared.

"We seen him yesterday moing. We was walking to the store, and we talked to him. And he seemed like everything was normal," Christian said.

But neighbor Lindsey Edwards told a much different story when she saw him about two hours before he disappeared.  She recalled the child was crying at noon Wednesday because his father was asleep.

”I do believe he was intoxicated, and he probably passed out and didn't know what happened, family friend Tasha Grier said about Ngalahom.

Ngalahom's next hearing is scheduled in two week, court officials said.