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GROVES — A 3-year-old girl is safe after she was found walking along a highway early Memorial Day morning.

A woman on her way to work spotted the child in the 2300 block of Texas 73 eastbound and called police at approximately 5:20 a.m. Monday. She and several other people stopped to check on the child, Groves City Marshal Norman Reynolds Jr. said, adding the child either couldn’t or wouldn’t speak with officers on scene.

Police knocked on several doors in the area with no success, then called Child Protective Services, who met them at the police station.

During this time a man on Dave Street — the area where police were knocking on doors — called Central Dispatch after looking at his security video and reported he had seen the child at 4:15 a.m.

“By 7:45 a.m. we still hadn’t located the parents and were still knocking on doors,” Reynolds said.

The story takes a bit of a twist in that the mother, of Port Arthur, reportedly left the child with a person who was supposed to be babysitting the child in Groves and that individual brought her to another person’s house to babysit for them and that’s when “she got out of the house,” Reynolds said.

The first babysitter wasn’t located until approximately 9 a.m. and police didn’t speak to the mother until 11 a.m.

A photo of the child was circulated on various Facebook groups asking if anyone knows the parents of the child. Reynolds said a woman saw the post and knew the mother of the child and contacted her.

The girl was released back to her mother, and Child Protective Services is conducting an investigation, Reynolds said.

Child Protective Services told The Port Arthur News Tuesday afternoon that it is investigating the case, adding the child was unharmed when found and is back with her mother.

“We are continuing our investigation into what occurred,” a CPS spokesperson said.