VOLUSIA COUNTY, FL – A 25-year-old Seville woman has been arrested and charged with child neglect after sheriff’s deputies and a DCF investigator found her four children, all under age nine, home alone without adult supervision since the previous day.
According to authorities, on Wednesday afternoon, deputies were called to assist the investigator, who reported hearing small children inside the home but nobody would answer the door until a family friend arrived nearly two hours later and got the children to respond.
The friend told deputies she came to the home out of concern because she had not been at the house, nor seen or heard from the children’s mother all day. In addition, the oldest child, age 9, stated he did not know where their mother was and had not seen her since the previous day. He told deputies he was the only one taking care of the children, ages 6, 2 and 1.
The mother, Rosaura Sanchez, 25, arrived home about 3:30 p.m. and told deputies a friend had been there to watch the children in the morning. However, the friend refuted Sanchez’s statements and left the scene, saying she didn’t want to be involved.
Deputies found the living conditions of the home and yard extremely poor and unkempt. The children were also dirty, wearing dirty clothes and appeared not to have been bathed in some time. In addition, the home sits just off north U.S. 17, which is a busy roadway, and a train track even closer that’s used by fast-moving freight and passenger trains. The yard has no fence to prevent the small children from leaving the yard and entering the train tracks or roadway.
Sanchez was arrested and charged with four counts of child neglect and transported to the Volusia County Branch Jail where she was scheduled for a first appearance hearing before a judge today.
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