MELBOURNE, Fla. (WHDH) — A woman who became frustrated with a 2-year-old girl locked her in a dark, barricaded closet overnight, where the young child sat in a soiled diaper with nothing but a pillow and a blanket, authorities said.
Agents from the Brevard County Sheriff’s Office’s Fugitive Unit went to a local hotel in Melbourne, Florida last week to arrest Patricia Ann Childress on an active warrant for child neglect, according to Sheriff Wayne Ivey.
They conducted a search of the room after taking Childress into custody and reportedly found a 2-year-old girl who had been locked in a closet for hours.
“As if being arrested for having committed child neglect is not bad enough, what our agents found inside the hotel room was even more disgusting and concerning,” Ivey wrote on Facebook.
The closet was said to be completely dark and barricaded shut from the outside with numerous items.
The 2-year-old had dried food on her face and hair and was only wearing a shirt and a diaper that had been completely soiled with urine and feces, Ivey said.
When confronted about the incident, Ivey said Childress first tried to tell the agents that the child wanted to be in the closet but she later admitted to locking the child in there overnight because she became frustrated dealing with the girl.
Further evidence developed at the scene by an underage witness indicated that the young girl was repeatedly locked in the closet whenever she acted up and that her mother only let her out if the police were coming, Ivey added.
In addition to being arrested on the warrant for child neglect, Childress is also facing a charge of aggravated child abuse.
Ivey said the sheriff’s office worked with the Department of Children and Families to place the children in a safe environment.
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