Angela Madden, at the Clark County Detention Center, talks Tuesday about her 2-year-old son, found alone Saturday near Pecos Road and Washington Avenue. Photo by Gary Thompson. Amareon, 2, was picked up Saturday by a passer-by. Angela Madden, mother of the toddler found wandering near Washington Street and Pecos Road, talks about her arrest during an interview Tuesday at the Clark County Detention Center. Photo by Gary Thompson.

Angela Madden landed in a foster home at 3 and didn't know her real mother, a Las Vegas prostitute who went to prison for soliciting after contracting HIV.

Two decades and at least one prostitution conviction later, Madden risks losing custody of her own child after the toddler was found wandering the streets last weekend.

In jail on a probation violation, the 22-year-old said she left her son with a friend and doesn't know how the child ended up on the street.

"I'm so confused. Who would do this? How did he get there?" said Madden, choking back tears during a jailhouse interview on Tuesday. "I just have so many questions and nobody here to answer me. ... It's unbelievable."

Amareon, 2, was picked up by a passer-by Saturday afternoon near Pecos Road and Washington Street. He is temporarily being cared for by the Clark County Department of Family Services, which has launched an investigation into how the boy ended up alone at the intersection.

The case grabbed media attention earlier this week after authorities publicized Amareon's photo to help identify him. After the boy was identified, authorities found Madden in jail, where she had been since early Saturday after being arrested on outstanding warrants in a misdemeanor case.

Madden's adoptive mother, Sonja Madden, said the episode was the latest in a lifetime of troubles for Angela Madden.

Angela Madden's mother was Eva Marie Kearns, who gained notoriety in the late 1980s as the first prostitute charged under a state law targeting hookers infected with HIV. Kearns died in prison, Sonja Madden said.

When she was 3 years old, Angela Madden landed in a foster home run by Sonja Madden's daughter. Sonja Madden and her husband, Bud, took custody of Angela Madden when she was 9 and adopted her two years later.

"I was hoping by us adopting her and keeping her that we could straighten her out," Sonja Madden said. "But she was always rebellious."

Angela Madden struggled with a learning disability and, as she grew older, became sexually promiscuous and frequently ran away from home, prompting her parents to lock up their house like "Fort Knox" to keep her from sneaking out, Sonja Madden said.

About four years ago, Bud and Sonja Madden moved to a small town outside St. Louis, and Angela Madden went to live with them after she got pregnant. The Maddens hoped their daughter would settle down in the rural town of St. Peters, Mo., but she made frequent trips to St. Louis.

After having her baby, Angela Madden said she stayed in Missouri for about a year before moving back to Las Vegas.

Sonja Madden said she warned her daughter she would lose her son if she didn't get her life on track.

Now, Sonja Madden's grandson and his wife will try to gain temporary custody of Amareon.

"I just pray that we can get her straightened out," Sonja Madden said.

During her jailhouse interview, Angela Madden said she was arrested about 5 a.m. Saturday, about nine hours before someone found her son. Madden said she last saw her son Friday night, when she bathed and fed him.

Madden said she left her apartment after 11:30 p.m. and entrusted the baby to her roommate, a 19-year-old mother of two whom she has known for five or six months.

"This wasn't her first time" watching Amareon, Madden said. "I don't think she's the one who did this, who just put my son on the side of the road."

Madden said her chief suspect is her boyfriend, whom she has dated for a few months. She is not sure of his full name.

"He told me it was Javon when we met," Madden said, though she now believes it was an alias.

At this point, Las Vegas police said they are not investigating the case. Instead, family services officials can forward any suspicious findings to authorities, who could then pursue a criminal probe.

Susan Klein-Rothschild, director of the Department of Family Services, declined to discuss particulars of the investigation.

"We will look at all of the factors about what led the child to be left there," said Klein-Rothschild. "But our focus is what can we do to make sure that this child is safe in the future."

Department officials will soon make a recommendation to the court, which will make a final decision about the child's future custody.

Angela Madden said Amareon's father left when she was three months pregnant and has never met his son.

Madden figures she'll be in jail for a while longer. She had appeared before a Las Vegas Justice Court judge earlier in the morning, she said, in connection with violating terms of her probation.

Madden said she was arrested in late March for solicitation of prostitution, and court records show she pleaded guilty in 2002 to grand larceny.

"If my son is down to his last Pamper, I will do whatever I have to do to take care of my son," said Madden, who lived near Carey Avenue and Martin Luther King Boulevard and said she has tried unsuccessfully for months to obtain public housing.

"I know what kind of mother I am," she said. "I'm not a bad mother. I may not be the best mother, but I don't do crack (cocaine). I don't do no drugs. I don't have a drinking problem. I spend money on my son. He's first, forever."

Madden said she pleaded guilty to the case in late March and spent a few hours in jail and received probation and community service. This time, however, the judge sentenced her to 30 days in jail.

The family services department said in a press release on Monday that a "reunification is forthcoming."

Most lost toddlers are returned to their parents within a few hours of their recovery.

But Tuesday afternoon, Madden didn't know if she would be reunited with her son. She was desperately trying to consult an attorney who might help shorten her sentence.

"I'm hoping and praying to God. I got 30 days in here. I'm just trying to think of a way to get the judge to let me out of here so I can see my son."