CLARKSVILLE, TN (CLARKSVILLE NOW) – A woman was arrested Wednesday on charges that she faked her autistic son’s death last October and then left him alone in a motel room for two weeks. The hoax caused grief among children at the school, and it led to a misguided fundraiser as teachers rallied to help the family.

Vanessa Blanchard, 39, was charged with contributing to the delinquency of a minor and false impression of death.

Student’s death reported to school

According to court records obtained by Clarksville Now, a school resource officer at New Providence Middle School reached out to Blanchard on Oct. 29, 2021, asking why her 12-year-old son wasn’t attending school.

Blanchard told the SRO her son had died from a seizure on Oct. 27, the court records said.

Ally Cole, a mother whose son attended school at New Providence Middle with the boy, said classmates and teachers were devastated.

“Kids in class were crying over his death. My son and some friends had made a shrine in homeroom at his old seat. He had talked every day about wanting to meet his mom and go to his funeral,” Cole told Clarksville Now, adding that counselors were offered to kids during the weeks after.

Teachers and school administrators organized a fundraiser to help the family with funeral arrangements.

Court records stated that NPMS raised the money. But Anthony Johnson, spokesman for the Clarksville-Montgomery County School System, said the money was raised by individual teachers and administrators acting on their own.

“Personnel at the school … did attempt to connect resources and support for the family,” Johnson told Clarksville Now. “To our knowledge, other than flowers, nothing was provided to the family before personnel were informed that the (child) was alive.”

When the funeral home was contacted about coordinating a donation for the student, the funeral home said they didn’t have any record of arrangements for him, the court records said.

Blanchard was then contacted, and she said her son’s body was at Tennova Healthcare-Clarksville awaiting an autopsy, the court records continued.

Discovered alone in motel room

Sandra Brandon, spokeswoman for the Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office, told Clarksville Now that deputies suspected foul play. At some point during their investigation, it was discovered that the student’s CMCSS-issued laptop was still active.

On Nov. 16, a Montgomery County Sheriff’s sergeant went to the Vacation Motor Hotel at 650 Providence Blvd., where the sergeant found the child, who is autistic, alone in a room, according to the court records.

Brandon clarified that the laptop’s location data was not used to find the child.

“It wasn’t through the laptop that he was located,” Brandon said. “It was strictly through the old-fashioned process of going out, interviewing people and conducting an investigation that they were able to locate him at that hotel.”

Because the child was found inside Clarksville city limits, the case was handed over to the Clarksville Police Department.

A CPD detective contacted Blanchard, and she allegedly admitted leaving her son in the motel room by himself. She told the detective she was checking on him whenever she could, which was daily or every other day, the court records said.

Child safe and healthy

Cole said that just a few days after Christmas, she and her son ran into the boy at a store. At that point, they still thought he had died.

“It was incredible. We walked out so he (my son) could scream and cry and rationalize what on earth it was,” Cole said. After composing themselves, they walked back in the store, and Cole said her son and the boy took selfies together.

CPD spokesman Scott Beaubien said the child is now in a safe location, but he could not comment on who has custody.