US toddler's 'home alone' ordeal (2 yr.old 19 days on her own)

I can't believe this wasn't on DU this morning. This is just plain STUPID and the kid is a scrapper.
Bless her.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/3155078.stm

A two-year-old girl in Florida has survived nearly three weeks alone in her apartment, living on a diet of mustard, dried pasta and tomato sauce.

Briana Lee was abandoned when her mother was jailed on 10 September, but did not tell police about her daughter.

Mr Lee went to the apartment block and after knocking on the doors of several neighbours was still unable to find Briana, so he got the building's manager to let him into the flat.

The infant was lying naked in a baby bath tub in the mother's bedroom covered in dirt and dried ketchup, draped in a towel, watching cartoons on the television.

Jacksonville Sheriff's Office spokesman Ken Jefferson said Briana had scavenged in the kitchen for food to survive, dragging it into the bedroom.

From other news sources:Ketchup, jelly (she was covered in it when she was found), raw eggs (the entire bottom of the fridge was empty), and she tried to open a can of corn the best she knew how-she took the label off.

lead me to believe that this wasn't the first time she had been left alone.

I hope her life improves from here.

:scared:

If her Dad hadn't been around or kept up with her this would have been much worse I think.

There's a hot spot in hell for those parents.

Briana's father, Ogden Lee, told the Florida Times-Union newspaper that he had been trying to get in touch with the mother Dakeysha Telita Lee, 20, for a fortnight - unaware that she was in fact in custody.

Dakeysha Lee had been detained on charges of battery and theft earlier in the month.

When Mr Lee eventually traced the mother to the prison and was able to speak to her, Dakeysha Lee said that the child was in the care of neighbours.

Mr Lee went to the apartment block and after knocking on the doors of several neighbours was still unable to find Briana, so he got the building's manager to let him into the flat.

Even though he eventually found her.

What kind of dad doesn't check in on his two-year-old daughter for two whole weeks? He must have known Dekeysha wasn't the most reliable parent on the planet.

Her spot in hell is hotter than his, but he's got one too.

Why were the parents no longer together, why did the mother have custody etc?

Maybe he didnt have the rights to visit her for two weeks? Who knows in this crazy world.

He did not know his soon to be ex-wife was in Jail. When he found out, he started checking where his daughter was and in the end found her.

Now the neightbors ARE SOMETHING ELSE.



"An advertising flier that had been slipped into the doors of the apartments about two weeks ago remained untouched, James said."

<cut>

"Leaford James moved into a third-floor apartment across from Dakeysha Lee about three weeks ago. He said he had heard a baby crying but was more curious about lights and a loud television"

<end of cuts.



OK you hear a baby crying, and a door hanger ad on the door for two plus weeks but that really does not ring a major bell..

I'm pretty sure that if one of my neighbors (we know just about everyone in the building) wasn't around for a week and we heard a baby crying from their apartment....uh I think we would put that together.

Toddler survivor in good health

http://www.jacksonville.com/tu-online/stories/100103/met_13671303.shtml


By Veronica Chapin and Dana Treen
Times-Union staff writers


A 2-year-old Jacksonville girl left alone nearly three weeks while her mother was in jail was in good health yesterday after eating everything from chicken to Cheerios much of the night, her father said from the toddler's hospital room.

The girl was being treated at Wolfson Children's Hospital for malnutrition and dehydration after she was left to fend for herself for 19 days inside her Arlington apartment, surviving on ketchup and raw pasta.

...more at Today's Jax newspaper.


BUT here is what I have a problem with from yesterday's Jax paper

"The Florida Department of Children and Families was notified and has not determined who will have custody of the child, police said. "


DCF should there be any question who the child belongs with. The father is the ONLY answer. Right DCF.

I just heard of this this morning.

here http://www.hypocrites.com/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=index as a news item.

So it's still LBN worthy but thanks.

share some responsibility. Why didn't they check it out that she was with neighbors?

I am assuming (ye sassuming) that they asked her. From the news I've heard she never mentioned that she had a baby and arrangements needed to be made.

Sigh.

180

to her spirit? *We* now know how remarkable are her skills for survival, but what would this do to child- to go for so long without having any nurturing? -Maybe it's always been that way for her.

:cry: