A 32-year-old Florida woman remained in jail Saturday morning after her arrest for allegedly leaving six young children home without adult supervision and in filthy conditions.
Maria Encino told Palm Beach County sheriff’s deputies that she and a man had gone someplace Wednesday where she drank “only five beers,” according to an arrest report made public Friday.
Encino has been charged with six counts of child neglect. She is being held at the Palm Beach County Jail in lieu of $18,000 bail.
According to a Palm Beach County sheriff’s arrest report made public Friday, a friend went to visit Encino at about 11 a.m. Thursday and found the children alone in the 24th Avenue North apartment.
Two of the children — a 3-month-old girl and a 1-year-old boy — were wearing soiled diapers, the report said.
The friend told deputies the oldest child, an 8-year-old girl, answered the door and said that Encino was not home. The girl said she had not seen Encino in two days, the report said.
The friend told deputies she checked the apartment and found four of the other children in the living room — but not the infant. The baby girl was discovered in a crib in a bedroom closet, covered by clothing. The child’s diaper was extremely soiled and her head and back were covered with fecal matter, the report said.
The rest of of the home was described as being in “total disarray” withe dishes and food overfilling the kitchen sink. The children were later put in the custody of the Florida Department of Children and Families.
Encino returned to apartment after a friend called and told her authorities were there. Asked where she had been, Encino reportedly told deputies she had left the apartment around noon Thursday. She later changed her story and told deputies she left Wednesday morning, the report said.
Then she told deputies that she had gone out drinking with a man, according to the report.
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