Say What Now? 6-Year-Old Says She and Dog Abandoned by Side of Road So Parents Could Go Charge Phones [Video]

After looking into the case of the missing child, the police discovered that she and her parents were homeless and that she was not enrolled in school at the time.

A woman who lives near Vann Park in Florida was surprised to find a little girl and her dog sitting on a chair in her carport on Friday afternoon. This after she’d previously seen the girl and dog wandering in her front yard.

The woman, who contacted the Volusia County Sheriff’s Office at around 4:30 p.m., told responding deputies that the girl had told her she was “hot, thirsty and hungry,” according to Fox affiliate WOFL, but not much about who she was or where she came from.

The woman and a neighbor brought the girl some toys, as well as food and water. They also provided her with clean underwear, per CBS affiliate WKMG, as she reportedly wasn’t wearing any at the time.

The girl had in her possession a small backpack containing a blanket, a marker, a Medicaid card, and a toilet bowl cleaner used as a brush, per the arrest affidavit, and a black dog tag tied to her dress.

WOFL reported that Deltona Fire Rescue checked her vitals and determined she was physically okay, but that still left a lot of open questions.

As they began the search for her parents, police posted the bodycam footage of their interactions with the 6-year-old girl and the woman who found her.

In the bodycame footage, which you can see via the Volusia Sheriff’s Office Facebook here, deputies can be seen attempting to ascertain the girl’s identity, where she might have come from, and where her parents — or responsible adults — might be.

She told them she wasn’t sure if she lived nearby, but offered up Aquania when she was asked if she knew her mommy’s name.

As for her parents, the girl told police, “They had to go somewhere,” when asked why she was dropped off at the park, but she did not know when they might return. She said she was dropped off that morning, per a press release from the Volusia Sheriff’s office.

“Mommy and daddy needed to go charge their cell phones,” she ultimately told police, per an arrest affidavit viewed by WOFL. She also shared that she did not attend school and said the family was currently homeless.

According to WKMG, the affidavit states the girl “described her home as one that leaks when it rains and said she is often allowed to leave and walk to stores on her own.”

Police took the girl to the Volusia Family Resource Center, where she was connected with her grandparents, who agreed to take custody of her. The dog was turned over to Deltona Animal Control, per WOFL.

It was at approximately 1 a.m. on Saturday, more than eight hours after police were first contacted about the abandoned child, that authorities reported finally tracking down her mother and her boyfriend.

According to bodycam footage seen by Law & Crime of this interaction, deputies were incredulous with the parents, with one heard asking them, “You leave your kid on the side of the f–king road?”

The girls’ mother, Aquania Estes, 27, then explained that they were currently homeless and “live in the forest.” She told deputies her daughter “got out from where she was staying at.”

“I was trying to go get water and food,” she argued. “We have been going through a rough time.” Deputies reported finding two tents in the woods where the family had purportedly been living.

Both Estes and her boyfriend, Pitrez Floyd, 29, were taken into custody and charged with desertion of a child and abandonment of an animal. They are being held on a $51,000 bond each.

If you are experiencing or witness child abuse, call the Childhelp National Child Abuse Hotline at 1-800-4-A-Child or 1-800-422-4453, or go to www.childhelp.org. If you believe a child is in immediate danger, call 911.

via: TooFab

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