Brandi Peterson says she was moving to a new apartment Friday while her three children stayed with their great grandparents in North Bloomfield. That’s when her two-year-old daughter Rainn wandered away from their supervision and sparked a frantic, 48-hour search that involved hundreds.
READ MORE: ‘She’s alive!’: 911 call captures emotional moment search volunteer finds missing Ohio toddler
Peterson says she has been treated as a suspect ever since.
“I feel like ever since this incident started I was a suspect, from strangers to family members to friends,” Rainn’s mother told WFMJ. “They all tried to accuse me when I lost my child. I didn’t know where she was. Very frustrating and aggravating,”
Mother and daughter didn’t see each other until Monday — a short visit under the supervision of Trumbull County Children’s Services. That same day Brandi, and her lawyers, agreed that her grandparents, Richard and Dora Mae Peterson, would be given temporary custody of the toddler.
It was Richard and Dora Mae who were tasked with watching Rainn when she went missing. However, they have been cleared of any negligent responsibility.
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Members of the Federal Bureau of Investigation continued to investigate a day after Rainn was found — hoping to piece together how she wound up in a field.
WATCH: Hero search volunteer who found missing Ohio toddler speaks out
Meanwhile, the volunteer that discovered ‘a patch of purple’ in a field about a mile away from the home has been hailed as a hero, even though he says he’s “just a guy.”
“There were hundreds of great people just as caring, just as capable as I was,” Victor Sutton told the NBC affiliate.
“All I kept thinking going through those woods is that she’s waiting for somebody like me to get her, I always promised my kids I’d get them and I wanted to get her if I could,” Sutton said.
He was riding an ATV when he found Rainn and placed an incredibly dramatic emergency 911 phone call. She was covered with flies, cold and wet and he believes she may have been sleeping in the same spot for some time.
“She was shaken and you could tell she had been through a bad experience,” he added.
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